In the 66 constituencies going to the polls today in the second phase of elections to the Karnataka legislative assembly, there are just 14 women candidates; 49 candidates with a criminal record; and 372 candidates whose assets in all exceed Rs 902 crore, according to a report prepared by the Karnataka Election Watch committee of the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Among the major parties, the BJP has 13 candidates with a criminal record, the Congress 9, JDS 8, BSP 7, and other parties 12. There are 6 candidates who are charged with murder or attempt to murder.
There are 14 women candidates. The BSP has 4, BJP 2, Congress 2, JDS 2, JDU 2 and others 2. In the first phase there were a total of 17 women candidates from the major parties for the 89 constituencies. The total percentage of women is less than 5% as in the first phase.
The total assets declared by all the 372 candidates considered by KEW for phase 2 was an impressive Rs 902 crore, with average candidate assets of Rs 2.42 crore. The Congress led the parties with total declared candidate assets of Rs 470 crore and average candidate assets of Rs 7.35 crore. The BJP candidates had total assets of Rs 249.8 crores and average of Rs.3.78 crore; JDS Rs 77.9 crore and Rs.1.28 crore; BSP Rs 40.6 crore and Rs.0.64 crore.
The three major parties account for 88.5% of total candidate assets with average candidate assets of Rs.4.18 crores. Clearly, elections have become a rich man’s game. There are 5 candidates who have declared “Very High” assets of over Rs 30 crore. Of these, 3 are from the Congress, 2 are from the BJP. Compared to phase 1 which included Bangalore, the number has come down from 14 to 5.
# Anil Lad of the Congress is the richest among the candidates in the fray with declared assets of Rs 172 crore, jumping 2,343 per cent since 2004.
# R.V. Deshpande of the Congress, whose assets since 2004 have jumped 2,091 per cent, has declared assets of Rs 116.29 crore.
# The assets of G.S. Manjunath, the BJP candidate from Chitradurga, have shot up by an eye-popping 2,125 per cent since the 2004 elections.
# The BJP candidate from Holalkere, M. Chandrappa, has seen his assets grow by 2,107 per cent. The assets of his Congress rival H. Anjaneya (in picture) have grown by—hold your breath—81,465 per cent, according to KEW.
Then there are 17 candidates who have “High Assets” between Rs 5 crore and Rs 30 crore. In spite of having such high assets, some of them have not declared their IT PAN numbers as required by the Election Commission.
As many as 74 candidates reported a very steep increase in total assets between the 2004 Assembly Elections and this election. The average increase in assets was a huge 465.6%.
There are 49 candidates with a criminal record. Among the major parties, the BJP has 13 candidates having a criminal record, BSP has 7, the Congress 9, JDS 8, and other parties 12. There are 6 candidates who are charged with murder or attempt to murder.
Of the 372 candidates considered in phase 2, 31 had post-graduate degrees, 26 had technical degrees (like BE, etc), 6 MBBS, 47 LLB, 97 graduates, 48 PUC, 49 matriculates, 35 non-matriculates. The rest did not mention their educational qualifications. The number of candidates who were 60 years old or more was 41, between 45 and 60 was 171, and less than 45 was 160.
KEW’s conclusion: The overall quality of candidates leaves much to be desired. The criminal records in particular are a little alarming. Unless this trend is checked, elections, democracy and overall governance will suffer. A lot of candidates are industrialists from the real estate, liquor, mining and other businesses. Unless business interests are aligned to citizen interests this raises interesting questions about governance and democracy. The average assets of candidates from the major parties was Rs.4.18 crores which means that the parties have turned their back on candidates with low assets. A lot of candidates have reported huge increase in their assets. This also needs to be investigated so that public trust is restored.
(Karnataka Election Watch (KEW) is part of a nationwide movement to improve democracy. It is a citizen-led non-political, non-partisan effort. This time several NGOs activists and civil society organizations in Karnataka are participating in this effort.)
Photograph: Karnataka Photo News
Tags: Anil Lad, Association of Democratic Reforms, BJP, BSP, Churumuri, Congress, JDS, Karnataka Election Watch, Karnataka Elections, R.V. Deshpande
16 May 2008 at 3:53 pm
No comments because I am in shock.
16 May 2008 at 6:58 pm
Ah, scraggly facial hair, compassionate brown eyes, a blue-collar complexion, the hint of a smile…
The dude is a charmer. That might explain it.
16 May 2008 at 7:37 pm
Thanks for the latest update. H. Anjaneya will beat Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to head No. 1 in Forbes list of Billionaires.
16 May 2008 at 8:02 pm
Dismal criminal and greedy record of the candidates is very sad….those were the days when people like TR Shamanna, Kadidal Manjappa were contesting the elections and winning based only on peoples faith and love for them. Compare them to the present day looters Anjaneya,Anil Lad, RV Deshpande, Gurrappa Naidu etc. Whither Karnataka
:(
16 May 2008 at 9:58 pm
Mayura–
Karnataka is withering.
17 May 2008 at 1:13 am
Why has the Election Commission not taken to logical conclusion its initiative in making the delcaration of assets before filing nomination mandatory.
We all thought naturally, that the Election Commission would verify the declarations made. And investigate the cases where the assets appear disproportionate to the known source of income?
Another curious aspect is that it is not the ministers or the members of the ruling legislature party, who are adept in amassing wealth disproportionate to the known source of income but even the opposition MLAs have picked up the trait beatifully. Legislators who have not even completed one single term, have declared their assets in crores more than what their mentors have earned for decades of work as legislators and ministers
The third curious point is that what is declared is only tip of the iceberg. What is concealed appears to be more.
Surely, the politics is quite a lurcrative profession, which brings easy and quick money for a meagre investment It is because of this, that there is a craze for wangling a party ticket and stories are not entirely baseless that the persons in position in the party have virtually sold the tickets. .
17 May 2008 at 2:09 am
Why do we live in this fantasy that democracy and elections are working as it is supposed to be when we have candidates wrapping crisp 500 Rupee notes in pamphlets and slipping it thru windows whether you want or not.
17 May 2008 at 9:28 am
Nitin… I want! I want!
nange koDlE illa! :’(
Where to complain?
17 May 2008 at 2:36 pm
bihar of south?
17 May 2008 at 8:26 pm
Mysore Peshva,
Your comment says it all.
15 June 2008 at 11:42 am
Boring journalist
If the Election Commission is not verifying candidates’ declarations of assets, what’s the point in collecting these details? We look forward to seeing EC’s bite, not witnessing its growl.
Further, how do I avoid being forced to select from a bunch of carpetbaggers? I know I can cast a protest vote, but I can’t see that doing any good other than making me feel good.
Can someone tell me what happens to an election if the protest vote count in that constituency exceeds votes polled by any other candidate? If this leads to a re-election, then we citizens may have a weapon to stop the political parties from foisting crooks as their candidates on us.
28 April 2013 at 3:40 pm
As long as a majority of our population are illiterates and ignoramuses we cannot expect anything else! No point in simply cribbing…….