77 MLAs declared criminal cases

As many as 77 newly elected MLAs in Karnataka have declared criminal cases against them, with 54 declaring cases of serious crime, said a report prepared by the Karnataka Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

“Out of the 221 MLAs [whose poll affidavits were] analysed, 77 [35 per cent] have declared criminal cases against them. Out of 218 MLAs analysed during Assembly elections in 2013, 74 [34 per cent] had declared criminal cases against them,” the report added.

“The 54 [24 per cent] MLAs who declared serious criminal cases had cases related to attempt to murder and kidnapping against them. The 2013 figure was 39 [17 per cent] MLAs.”

Four MLAs declared cases related to attempt to murder.

More than 3m tweets about election

Twitter registered more than three million tweets related to the Karnataka assembly polls over the past three weeks, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) garnering 51 per cent of the share of voice, the social media platform announced yesterday.

Congress registered 42 per cent and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) 7 per cent of mentions on Twitter in the April 25-May 15 period.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi emerged as the most mentioned personality on Twitter, while former chief minister Siddaramaiah was the most mentioned candidate on the platform, the company said in a statement.

“Over the past few weeks, our data shows more than three million Tweets related to the Karnataka elections, making it one of the most talked-about state elections on Twitter,” said Mahima Kaul, head of Public Policy and Government, Twitter India.

BJP lost 4 out of 5 closest-fought seats

As the BJP fell short of the halfway mark in the Karnataka polls, results show that it lost four of the five closely contested seats where the victory margin was less than a thousand votes.

In fact, the fate of all the five constituencies was decided by a margin of less than 700 votes.

While the Congress won Maski, Pavagada, Hirekerur and Kundgol, where the difference between the number of votes polled by the winning candidate and the closest opponent varied from a meagre 213 to 634 votes, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won Aland seat by just 697 votes. The BJP candidates came in second place in Maski, Hirekerur and Kundgol, whereas in Pavagada (Tumkur district), Congress candidate Venkataramanappa polled 72,974 votes to defeat Janata Dal (Secular)’s K.M. Thimmarayappa by 409 votes.