35% legislators have criminal cases pending; 97% crorepatis

An analysis of the poll papers of the 221 of the 222 newly elected Karnataka assembly members reveals that 71, or 35%, of them have criminal cases against them, a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms and Karnataka Election Watch says.

The report, which doesn’t have details of a BJP MLA, shows 54 MLAs have at least one serious criminal case, such as murder and attempt to murder, against them.

There is also a rise in the number of lawmakers with criminal cases when compared to previous assemblies. For instance, in 2013, the assembly had 34% MLAs with criminal cases. In 2008, the figure stood at 24%.

Karnataka, one of the seven states in the country to have a bicameral legislature, has a 224member assembly. Voting for two seats was countermanded and will be held at a later date.

A party-wise analysis shows that 42, or 41%, of the BJP’s 103 MLAs are embroiled in criminal cases, while 23, or 30%, of Congress’ 78 legislators face criminal charges. Eleven legislators of the Janata Dal (Secular), which got 37 seats, have criminal cases against them. The BSP that fought as a JD(S) partner got one seat and two MLAs are Independents and are included in the party-wise breakup.

As many as 29 BJP MLAs, 17 of the Congress and eight of JD (S) had serious criminal cases against them.

A majority of the legislators -215 of the 221 -- declared assets of ₹1 crore or more. Half of all elected MLAs said in their affidavits that they had assets worth ₹10 crore or more. The three richest among them are from the Congress -- N Nagaraju (₹1,015 crore), DK Shivakumar (₹640 crore) and Suresh BS (₹460 crore).

The analysis also reveals that 135 MLAs are graduates or above. Eighty declared themselves as Class 5-12 pass and an MLA declared himself as “literate”.

The Association for Democratic Reforms is a Delhi-based non-profit pushing for electoral reforms and Karnataka Election Watch is an advocacy group for poll transparency.