In the 66 Assembly constituencies going to the polls on May16, 2008 in Phase 2, there are 49
candidates with a criminal record. A full list of the candidates is enclosed. 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.
Several of them are charged with other violent crimes like assault with deadly weapons and so on.
Women Candidates
There are 14 women candidates. The BJP has 2, BSP 4, INC 2, JDS 2, JDU 2 and others 2. In the
first phase there were a total of 17 women candidates from the major parties. The total percentage
of women is less than 5% as in the first phase.
Financial Record
The total assets declared by all the 372 candidates considered by KEW for phase 2 was an
impressive Rs.902 crores, with average candidate assets of Rs.2.42 crores. The INC led the
parties with total declared candidate assets of Rs.470 crores and average candidate assets of
Rs.7.35 crores. The BJP had total assets of Rs.249.8 crores and average of Rs.3.78 crores, JDS
Rs.77.9 crores and Rs.1.28 crores, and BSP Rs.40.6 crores and Rs.0.64 crores.
Total Candidate Assets for Phase 2 (Rs. Crores)
Party Total Number of candidates Total candidate Assets Average candidate Assets
BJP 66 Rs. 249.8 Rs.3.78
INC 64 Rs. 470.1 Rs.7.35
JDS 61 Rs. 77.9 Rs.1.28
Total 191 Rs.797.80 Rs. 4.18
Others 181 Rs. 104.2 Rs.0.58
Total 372 Rs. 902.0 Rs.2.42
As the Table shows, 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. It
is very difficult for Independent candidates to win and the major parties give tickets to candidates
with very high level of assets.
There are 5 candidates who have declared assets of over Rs.30 crores – which we classify as
“Very High”. Of this 2 are from the BJP, and 3 from the INC. Compared to phase 1 which
included Bangalore, the number has come down from 14 to 5.
Then there are 17 candidates who have “High Assets” between Rs. 5 crores and Rs. 30 crores. In
spite of having such high assets, some of them have not declared their IT PAN numbers as
required by the Election Commission. Details are enclosed.
There are 46 candidates who have declared very low assets of Rs. 1 lakh or less.

Comparing Financial Record with 2004 Data
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%.

Criminal Records
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. Several of them are
charged with other violent crimes like assault with deadly weapons and so on.
As can be seen, these three parties have not shown any significant decline in the percentage of
candidates with criminal records. The criminal charges include murder, attempt to murder,
criminal intimidation and death threats, grievous injury with deadly weapons, forgery and
cheating. There are at least 6 candidates from the major parties with murder or attempt to murder
cases against them. The cynical cycle of putting up such candidates continues.
Changes in Criminal records
There are at least 29 candidates whose criminal record has changed since 2004. The details are
given in the enclosures. Of this, there are 13 from the BJP, 7 from the INC, 5 from the JDS and 4
from other parties. This needs to be investigated by the authorities.
Education and Age of Candidates
Of the 372 candidates considered in Phase 2, 31 has 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 no 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.
Conclusions
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.
All information about candidates has been taken from the affidavits filed by candidates with their
nomination papers. While all efforts have been made to ensure that the information in this report
is correct, in case of any discrepancy, the information from the nomination papers should be
treated as correct. Neither ADR nor KEW nor their volunteers are responsible or liable for any
damage arising directly or indirectly from the release of this report.

Click to view the detailed report available here.