Bangalore:

Crorepati candidates have a formidable presence in the May five assembly polls in Karnataka.

Out of the 1,052 candidates contesting from six parties, 681 or 65 per cent, are crorepatis.

The average asset per candidate among them is Rs 9.07 crore, according to Karnataka Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms which have analysed self-sworn affidavits of 1,052 out of the 2,948 contesting candidates.

The candidates belong to BJP, Congress, JD(S), Karnataka Janata Party led by former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa, BSR Congress of former minister B Sriramulu, Loksatta Party (LSP) and a few independent candidates, mostly outgoing MLAs.

According to the analysis, the average asset per candidate for Congress (217 analysed candidates) is Rs 21 crore. For JD (S), (215 analysed) the average is Rs10 crore, for BJP (218 analysed), it is Rs seven crore and for KJP (197 analysed) the average is Rs two crore.

For BSRC (171 analysed) and LSP (22 analysed) the average is Rs 1 crore.

The top three candidates with highest declared assets are (in decreasing order): Congress' Priyakrishna from Govindrajnagar Constituency with declared assets worth Rs 910 crores followed by his party colleagues N Nagaraju from Hosakote Constituency with assets worth Rs 470 crore and Anil Lad from Bellary City with assets worth Rs 288 crores.

Among the 215 candidates analysed for JD(S), K Bagegowda from Basavanagudi constituency has declared total assets of Rs. 250 crores.

From BJP, the highest assets of worth Rs. 118 crores have been declared by NS Nandiesha Reddy who is contesting from KR Pura.

Out of 1052 candidates, 61 candidates have declared assets less than Rs. 1 Lakh.

R Sathya Narayana of KJP from KR Pura Consituency has declared zero assets in his affidavit. Ramanna RHJ of Loksatta Party from Raichur constituency has declared assets worth Rs 950 followed by Dr Abdul Kareem of Loksatta Party from Bidar South who has declared assets worth Rs 25,000.

A total of 40 candidates out of 1,052 analysed have declared liabilities of 10 crores and above.

The top three candidates with highest declared liabilities are: Congress' Priyakrishna Rs. 777 crores followed by Prabhakara Reddy R of JD(S) from Bangalore South constituency Rs 200 crore and M.

Krishnappa of Congress from Vijayanagar constituency with Rs 78 crores worth of liabilities.

Out of the candidates analysed from six parties, 220 of them, or 21 per cent, have declared criminal cases against them.

Giving the party-wise candidates with criminal cases, it said 55 out of 217 or 25 per cent fielded by Congress have declared criminal cases against them followed by 48 out of 215 (22 per cent) candidates from JD(S), 44 out of 197 (22 per cent) candidates from KJP, 45 out of 218 (21 per cent) from BJP, 21 out of 171 (12 per cent) from BSRC and 2 out of 22 (9 per cent) candidates fielded by Loksatta Party.

Out of the 11 independent candidates analysed, four (36 per cent) have declared criminal cases against themselves.

source:http://zeenews.india.com