Press Release: Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023: Analysis of Criminal Background, Financial, Education, Gender and other Details of Candidates

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May 3, 2023, 3:29:18 AM5/3/23

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Press Release

3rd May, 2023

Dear Friends,

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Karnataka Election Watch have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 2586 out of 2615 candidates, who are contesting in the Karnataka 2023 Assembly Elections. Out of 2586 candidates analysed, 790 are from National parties, 255 are from State parties, 640 are from registered unrecognized parties and 901 candidates are contesting independently.

The full reports in English, Hindi and Kannada can be accessed here: https://adrindia.org/content/analysis-criminal-background-financial-education-gender-and-other-details-candidates-19

Summary and Highlights

Party	Total Contesting Candidates	Total Number of Analysed Candidates	Candidates with declared Criminal Cases	% of candidates with declared criminal cases	candidates with declared serious criminal cases	% of candidates with declared serious criminal cases	No. of Crorepatis	Percentage of Crorepati Candidates
National Parties	795	790	269	34%	165	21%	560	71%
State Parties	256	255	83	33%	62	24%	188	74%
Registered Unrecognized Party	647	640	110	17%	87	14%	124	19%
Independent	917	901	119	13%	90	10%	215	24%
Total	2615	2586	581	22%	404	16%	1087	42%

Table: Party Category Wise Details

Criminal Background

Candidates with Criminal Cases: Out of the 2586 candidates analysed in Karnataka Assembly elections 2023, 581(22%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. In the 2018 Karnataka Assembly Elections, out of 2560 candidates analysed, 391(15%) had declared criminal cases against themselves.

Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 404(16%) have declared serious criminal cases. In 2018 Karnataka Assembly Elections, 254 (10%) candidates had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Figure: Comparative analysis of Candidates with declared Criminal Cases: 2018 vs 2023

Party wise Candidates with Criminal Cases: Among the major parties,122(55%) out of 221 candidates analysed from INC, 96(43%) out of 224 candidates analysed from BJP, 70 (34%) out of 208 candidates analysed from JD(S) and 48 (23%) out of 208 candidates analysed from AAP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Party wise Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: Among the major parties,69(31%) out of 221 candidates analysed from INC, 66(30%) out of 224 candidates analysed from BJP, 52 (25%) out of 208 candidates analysed from JD(S) and 30 (14%) out of 208 candidates analysed from AAP have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Candidates with Criminal Cases

Party	Karnataka Assembly 2018			Karnataka Assembly 2023
Party	Number of Candidates Analysed	Number of candidates with Declared Criminal Cases	Percentage of candidates with Declared Criminal Cases	Number of Candidates Analysed	Number of candidates with Declared Criminal Cases	Percentage of candidates with Declared Criminal Cases
BJP	224	83	37%	224	96	43%
INC	220	59	27%	221	122	55%
JD(S)	199	41	21%	208	70	34%
AAP	27	5	19%	208	48	23%
NCP	14	3	21%	9	2	22%
CPI(M)	19	7	37%	3	1	33%
Independent	1090	108	10%	901	119	13%

Table: Party Wise Candidates with Declared Criminal Cases: 2018 vs 2023

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Candidates with Declared Criminal Cases: 2018 vs 2023

Candidates with declared cases related to crime against women: 49 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. Out of 49 candidates 1 candidate has declared case related to rape (IPC Section-376).

Candidates with declared cases related to murder: 8 candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section-302) against themselves.

Candidates with declared cases related to attempt to murder: 35 candidates have declared cases related to Attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) against themselves.

Red Alert Constituencies*: 111(50%) out of 224 constituencies are Red alert constituencies. Red alert constituencies are those where 3 or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. 56 (25%) constituencies in the Karnataka assembly elections 2018 had 3 or more candidates with declared criminal cases.

The directions of the Supreme Court have had no effect on the political parties in selection of candidates in the Karnataka Assembly Elections as they have again followed their old practice of giving tickets to around 22% candidates with criminal cases. All major parties contesting in Karnataka elections have given tickets to 23 % to 55 % candidates who have declared criminal cases against themselves. The Supreme Court in its directions dated 13th February, 2020 had specifically instructed political parties to give reasons for such selection and why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates. As per these mandatory guidelines, the reasons for such selection has to be with reference to qualifications, achievements and merit of the candidate concerned. During the recent 3 State Assembly elections held in 2023, it was observed that political parties gave unfounded and baseless reasons like popularity of the person, does good social work, cases are politically motivated etc. These are not sound and cogent reasons for fielding candidates with tainted backgrounds. This data clearly shows that political parties have no interest in reforming the electoral system and our democracy will continue to suffer at the hands of lawbreakers who become lawmakers.

Financial Background

Figure: Share of Wealth among the Contesting Candidates

Share of wealth among candidates: The share of wealth amongst the candidates contesting in the Karnataka assembly elections 2023 is as follows:

Value of assets (Rs.)	Number of candidates	Percentage of Candidates
5 crores and above	592	23%
2 crores to 5 crores	272	11%
50 lakhs to 2 crores	493	19%
10 lakhs to 50 lakhs	578	22%
less than 10 lakhs	651	25%

Table: Share of wealth amongst contesting candidates

Crorepati Candidates: Out of the 2586 candidates analysed, 1087(42%) are crorepatis. In 2018 Karnataka Assembly Elections, out of 2560 candidates, 883(35%) were crorepatis.

Figure: Comparative Analysis of Crorepati Candidates: 2018 Vs 2023

Party wise Crorepati Candidates: The role of money power in our elections is evident from the fact that all major political parties give tickets to wealthy candidates. Among the major parties 215(97%) out of 221 candidates analysed from INC, 216(96%) out of 224 candidates analysed from BJP, 170(82%) out of 208 candidates analysed from JD(S) and 107(51%) out of 208 candidates analysed from AAP have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Crorepati Candidates

Party	Karnataka Assembly 2018			Karnataka Assembly 2023
Party	Number of Candidates Analysed	Number of Crorepati Candidates	Percentage of Crorepati Candidates	Number of Candidates Analysed	Number of Crorepati Candidates	Percentage of Crorepati Candidates
BJP	224	208	93%	224	216	96%
INC	220	207	94%	221	215	97%
JD(S)	199	154	77%	208	170	82%
AAP	27	9	33%	208	107	51%
NCP	14	2	14%	9	5	56%
CPI(M)	19	1	5%	3	1	33%
Independent	1090	199	18%	901	215	24%

Table: Party Wise Crorepati Candidates: 2018 vs 2023

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Crorepati Candidates: 2018 vs 2023

Average assets: The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023 is Rs 12.26 Crores. In 2018 Karnataka Assembly Elections, average assets per candidate for 2560 Candidates was Rs. 7.54 crores.

Party wise average assets: Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 221 INC candidates analysed is Rs. 49.83 Crores, 224 BJP candidates analysed is Rs 39.41 Crores, 208 JD(S) candidates have average assets of Rs 24.45 Crores and 208 AAP have average assets worth Rs 4.25 Crores.

High asset candidates: The details of top 3 candidates with highest declared assets, contesting in the Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023 are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Yousuf Shariff	B.B.M.P(CENTRAL)	CHICKPET	IND	85,69,24,388	15,47,97,11,050	16,33,66,35,438 1633 Crore+	Y
2	N Nagaraju	BANGALORE RURAL	HOSAKOTE	BJP	5,36,20,50,279	10,73,35,93,834	16,09,56,44,113 1609 Crore+	Y
3	D K Shivakumar	RAMANAGARAM	KANAKAPURA	INC	2,73,41,60,463	11,40,38,41,941	14,13,80,02,404 1413 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest declared assets

Zero assets candidates: There are 14 candidates who have declared zero assets. The details of these candidates are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Aruna G Katakdhond	BIJAPUR	NAGTHAN (SC)	IND	0	0	0	N
2	Dattatrey K Kamalapurkar	GULBARGA	GULBARGA RURAL (SC)	IND	0	0	0	Y
3	Santoshkumar	BIDAR	AURAD (SC)	IND	0	0	0	Y
4	Kalal Takappa S/O Yallappa	DHARWAD	HUBLI-DHARWAD-CENTRAL	IND	0	0	0	N
5	N.O.Rangaswamy	CHITRADURGA	HIRIYUR	IND	0	0	0	Y
6	Prakash R A	TUMKUR	TUMKUR CITY	IND	0	0	0	Y
7	Shivanna	TUMKUR	GUBBI	BSP	0	0	0	Y
8	Nagarajappa	TUMKUR	PAVAGADA (SC)	IND	0	0	0	Y
9	V. Kalavathi	KOLAR	KOLAR GOLD FIELD (SC)	IND	0	0	0	Y
10	Manjunatha.K.R	RAMANAGARAM	MAGADI	IND	0	0	0	Y
11	Ramesha Boodu, Sullia	DAKSHINA KANNADA	SULLIA (SC)	Uttama Prajaakeeya Party	0	0	0	Y
12	Bhagya N	BANGALORE URBAN	YELAHANKA	IND	0	0	0	N
13	Jameel Ahmed	B.B.M.P(CENTRAL)	SHIVAJINAGAR	IND	0	0	0	Y
14	Anjan Kumar Gowda S	B.B.M.P(NORTH)	HEBBAL	Indian New Congress Party	0	0	0	Y

Table: Candidates with declared zero assets

Low assets candidates: The details of three candidates with lowest assets (excluding zero assets candidates) are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Gurusiddappa Basalingappa Toggi	BELGAUM	RAMDURG	IND	500	0	500 5 Hund+	Y
2	Kalid Khan	BANGALORE URBAN	BYATARAYANAPURA	IND	1,019	0	1,019 1 Thou+	Y
3	E.H. Nayak	RAICHUR	MASKI (ST)	IND	5,000	0	5,000 5 Thou+	Y

Table: Candidates with declared lowest assets

Candidates with high liabilities: 1708(66%) candidates have declared liabilities in their affidavits. The details of top three candidates with highest liabilities are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party	Total Assets(Rs)	Liabilities (Rs)	Disputed liabilities (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Priyakrishna	B.B.M.P(SOUTH)	GOVINDARAJANAGAR	INC	11,56,83,93,089 1156 Crore+	# 8,81,99,38,805 881 Crore+	65,15,25,282 65 Crore+	Y
2	D K Shivakumar	RAMANAGARAM	KANAKAPURA	INC	14,13,80,02,404 1413 Crore+	# 2,65,06,92,812 265 Crore+	2,46,51,49,027 246 Crore+	Y
3	K. Narayan Raju	B.B.M.P(SOUTH)	BOMMANAHALLI	JD(S)	4,16,79,75,837 416 Crore+	# 1,25,38,78,609 125 Crore+	15,25,43,837 15 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest liabilities

#Disputed liabilities

Candidates with high income as declared in the ITR*: The details of top 3 candidates with high income declared in ITR are given below:

S.No.	Name	Party	Constituency	District	Total Asset (Rs)	Self-Source of Income	Spouse's Source of Income	The financial year for which the last income tax return has been filed by candidate	Total income shown by candidate in ITR (Self+Spouse+Dependent) (Rs)	Self-income shown by candidate in ITR (Rs)
1	N Nagaraju	BJP	HOSAKOTE	BANGALORE RURAL	16,09,56,44,113 1609 Crore+	Agriculture, House Property, Business & Other Sources	House Property & Others Sources	2021-2022	1,37,93,49,750 137 Crore+	96,84,00,430 96 Crore+
2	Yousuf Shariff	IND	CHICKPET	B.B.M.P(CENTRAL)	16,33,66,35,438 1633 Crore+	Business	NA	2022-2023	46,19,71,670 46 Crore+	46,19,71,670 46 Crore+
3	K.C.Veerendra Puppy	INC	CHITRADURGA	CHITRADURGA	1,34,89,42,076 134 Crore+	Agricultural Income, Business Income, Rental Income, Income from Fixed Deposits and Income from Recurring Deposit	Agriculturist	2022-2023	33,75,36,513 33 Crore+	33,68,31,362 33 Crore+

Table: Top 3 candidates with highest income as declared in ITR

Undeclared PAN: A total of 40(2%) candidates have not declared their PAN details.

Other Background Details

Education details of candidates: 1243(48%) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5^th and 12^thstandard while 1108(43%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. 150 candidates are Diploma holders. 47 candidates have declared themselves to be just literate and 37 candidates are Illiterates. 1 candidate has not given his educational qualification.

Age details of candidates: 832(32%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 1356 (52%) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. There are 389 (15%) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years and 9 candidates have declared they are more than 80 years old.

Gender details of candidates: 186(7%) female candidates are contesting in the Karnataka assembly election 2023. In 2018 Karnataka Assembly Elections, 209(8%) out of 2560 candidates analysed were women.

Recommendations of ADR

To remedy the existing problem of criminalization is to immediately act upon the plausible solutions offered by various committees, civil society and citizens. The Supreme Court of India being the ultimate custodian of “Justice and Rule of Law” should reprimand political parties and politicians for their complete lack of will, reprehensible predilection and absence of required laws.
Permanent disqualification of candidates convicted for heinous crimes like murder, rape, smuggling, dacoity, kidnapping etc.
Disqualification of persons from contesting elections to the public offices against whom charges have been framed for having committed serious criminal offences punishable by imprisonment of at least 5 years, and the case is filed at least 6 months prior to the election in question.
Cancellation of tax exemptions given to the political parties who field such tainted candidates.
Bringing political parties under the Right to Information Act.
De-register and de-recognise any political party if it knowingly puts up a candidate with a tainted background.
Political party should annually file the information on criminal antecedents of their Office Bearers and make such records available to the public, including NIL records.
Disqualification of candidates furnishing false information in the election affidavit (Form 26).
Ensure trial of cases in which the politicians are accused to be concluded in a time bound manner.
Implementation of SC judgment dated 23^rd September, 2013 (i.e provision of NOTA buttons on the EVMs) in its letter and spirit by ensuring a) if NOTA gets more votes than any of the candidates, none of the candidates should be declared elected, and a fresh election should be held; b) in the fresh election, none of the candidates in the earlier election, in which NOTA got the highest number of votes, should be allowed to contest.
Implementation of the 25^th September, 2018 and 13^th February, 2020 SC orders on 'publication of criminal cases against candidates selected by political parties along with reasons for such selection' in its letter and spirit by directing the Election Commission of India a) to list out names of such tainted candidates selected by the political parties along with such reasons for such selection C8 including diligent publication of reasons in newspapers, T.V channels, party website etc, b) strict and constant reminders by ROs to the defaulters, c) list needs to be religiously prepared and submitted to the Supreme Court after every election, d) uploading of this list on ECI’s website for public inspection, e) a suitably heavy financial penalty levied on political parties for making insufficient disclosures, invalid and common reasons, selection of candidates based on winnability and f) Officer in-charge of a political party pertaining to submission of a compliance report should also be held accountable for such a breach.
The Election Commission of India and all State Election Commissions should make it mandatory in all elections; Parliamentary, Assembly and Local Body elections to carry display boards outside each and every polling booth showing a summarised version of candidates’ affidavits. The polling booths should essentially display details of candidate’s criminal records, assets and liabilities and education qualification.
The Election Commission of India under its ‘Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation’ (SVEEP) as well as through other national campaigns on voter awareness held before every election should inform and aware the voters that (i) taking and giving cash or gifts/freebies for votes is a criminal offense, (ii) such instances should be brought to the notice of the ECI through its web application, (iii) inform voters that information on criminal records of candidates is available on the ECI website, outside polling booths and other sources that the ECI may use.
Political parties in India should be required to announce/publish the list of candidates contesting elections at least 3 months prior to elections.
Role of money and muscle power is evident from the fact that all major political parties in Karnataka Assembly Elections 2023 have fielded 51% to 97% candidates who are crorepatis and 23% to 55 % candidates who have declared criminal cases against themselves. This close and alarming nexus between money power and muscle power has got so ingrained in our electoral system that the citizens are left hostage to the current situation. Money and muscle power hurt the principles of 'free and fair elections', 'participatory democracy' and 'level playing field'. The present circumstances therefore demand an extensive deliberation by the voters so that sanctity of elections is not ridiculed by tenacious entry of tainted candidates and candidates with abnormal multiplication of assets.