Karnataka Election Watch Press Release: 75% ministers in Karnataka 2008 cabinet crorepatis, average asset of a minister in 2008 Karnataka assembly is 6.96 crores

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Apr 4, 2013, 9:30:31 AM4/4/13

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Dear Friends,

For the upcoming Karnataka Assembly Elections 2013, KEW is planning a series of activities for cleaner elections which we hope will lead to better governance. KEW is a network of non political, non partisan citzens and citizen organization. Nearly all the Districts of Karnataka are represented in this. There are also several eminent persons who are guiding and supporting this work.

The main activities include:

1. A campaign on “My vote is not for sale” to counter excessive spending in elections and bribing of voters through money, liquor, gifts. This campaign includes street plays in different districts, distribution of pamphlets, sms campaign, video screenings of well known cine celebrities giving the same message, and help from the media to reach a very large number of voters

2. KEW also urges voters to register and go out and vote. But they should make an informed choice and get relevant information of their candidates before voting KEW will also disseminate candidate information to voters giving details of their assets, growth in assets, criminal records if any, attendance in Assembly, questions asked and so on.

We will release information on MLAs, Karnataka budget, contribution report of political parties, their Income Tax returns, and expenses of political parties during elections in two more press conferences in the coming weeks.

In this press release attached, we give the details of the current Ministers in Karnataka, how their assets have grown over the last few years, how it compares with other MLAs, how different political parties compare, and also how Karnataka MLAs compare with those from other Southern States.

Highlights: Analysis of Karnataka's Cabinet Ministers

National Election Watch (NEW) has analyzed the affidavits of 24 out of 27 cabinet ministers including the Chief Minister, submitted to the Election Commission of India from the state of Karnataka. Among the 24 analysed, V.SOMANNA of BJP is an MLC from 2010, rest all are MLAs.

42% ministers i.e. (10 out of 24 analyzed) have self declared criminal cases as per their affidavits filed during the last held Assembly Elections in 2008. 2 ministers out of these 24 analyzed have declared serious IPC charges like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, theft etc. against them.

Among these 10 Ministers who have declared criminal cases against themselves, the following Ministers have declared serious criminal charges against them: 1) Balachandra Laxmanrao Jarkhiholi (of BJP from Arabhavi) has declared 1 case against himself including charges related to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, theft etc., 2) C.T RAVI (of BJP from Chikmagalur) has declared 5 criminal cases including charges of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, residence, language etc.,

18 out of 24 analyzed or 75% cabinet ministers are crorepatis.

Overall, 61% or 131 out of the 215 analyzed MLAs are crorepatis in Karnataka assembly 2008.

ANAND SINGH of BJP from Vijayanagara constituency has the highest assets (Rs. 88.66 Crores) among the Karnataka cabinet ministers followed by V.SOMANNA of BJP elected as MLC in 2010 with assets worth Rs.10.99 Crores followed by Asnotikar Anand Vasant of BJP from Karwar Constituency with assets worth Rs. 10.39 Crores among the Karnataka cabinet ministers.

The average asset of a minister in Karnataka assembly 2008 is 6.96 crores.

14 out of the 24 ministers analysed were also ministers in Karnataka 2004 assembly. The average asset for these ministers was 91 Lakhs.

The growth in average asset per minister was 665% from 2004 to 2008.

The average asset per MLA in Karnataka assembly 2008 is 5.98 crores for 214 MLAs analysed out of 224 MLAs (Priya Krishna of INC from Govindraj Nagar with and asset of Rs. 767.61 crores has been excluded as his assets are clearly an outlier). In 2004 Karnataka assembly the average asset of 186 out of 224 analysed was 1.29 crores.

There was a growth of 364% increase in average asset of MLAs from 2004 to 2008 assembly elections.

Party-wise average assets in 2008 Karnataka assembly is 9.55 crores for INC (70 MLAs analysed), 4.43 crores JD (S) (26 MLAs analysed), 4.35 crores BJP (112 MLAs analysed) and 1.48 for Independent MLAs (6 MLAs analysed).

In 2004 Karnataka assembly, the party-wise average assets for INC was 2.30 crores (58 MLAs analysed), JD (S) was 96.30 lakhs (52 MLAs analysed)

The average assets per MLA is the highest i.e, 5.98 crores in the 2008 Karnataka Assembly followed by 2011 Tamil Nadu Assembly with an average of 3.98 crores, 2009 Andhra Pradesh Assembly with 3.78 crores and 2011 Kerala Assembly with 1.43 crores.

R. Varthur Prakash with assets worth 2 lakhs has the lowest assets among all the ministers analysed in Karnataka.

Among all the 24 ministers analysed, none of them is a woman.

Please find enclosed the following reports that contain the analysis of self-declared information provided by the MLAs in the 2008 Karnataka Assembly: