Karnataka has the highest number of crorepatis contesting the elections to the Lok Sabha this year. A study conducted by the National Election Watch reveals that Karnataka has higher than the all India level of crorepatis contesting.
There are 45 or 24.9 percent compared to 93 crorepatis (14 percent) at the all India level. Percentage of contesting crorepatis has increased from 9 percent in 2004 to 14 percent in 2009 at the all India level.
Among major parties, the average asset per candidate for Janata Dal-Secular is Rs.19.1 crore, Bharatiya Janata Party Rs.7.27 crore, Congress is Rs 4.67 crore and the Bahujan Samaj Party is Rs.0.98 crore
The BJP and the Congress lead the pack with the most number of crorepati candidates. 12 out of the 14 candidates of the BJP for the first phase are crorepatis while the Congress has fielded 15 candidates out of which 12 are crorepatis. Out of the 11 fielded by the BJP, six are crorepatis, the report states.
Richest candidate:
The richest candidate in the fray from Karnataka is Surendra Babu R of the JD-S who is contesting from Bangalore North. His assets have been valued at Rs 108 crore.
Captain G R Gopinath, the independent candidate from Bangalore South, comes second, valueded at Rs 66 crore.
C Aswathnarayan of the BJP and H D Kumarswamy of the JD-S are third and fourth richest with assets of Rs 52 and Rs 42 crore respectively.
As per the NEW report, 13 MLAs who won in 2008 are re-contesting the elections in 2009 for the Lok Sabha. Within one year, their declared assets showed an increase of 39 percent. Similarly, seven MPs from the 14th Lok Sabha are re-contesting this time. Their assets went up in these five years from a total of Rs.7.63 crore to Rs.27.94 crore or 266 percent. Their increase in wealth is far more than inflation or the rate of growth of the GDP.
Criminal candidates:
The total number of candidates in the April 23, Phase 2 elections in Karnataka elections with criminal records is 27 (14.8 percent of 181 candidates), compared to 222 (16 percent of 1,425 candidates) at the all India level for Phase 1 polls on April 16.
Most of the major political parties in Karnataka have fielded candidates with criminal records, with top four being JD-S five out of 11 (45.45 percent), BJP six out of 14 (42.9 percent), Congress four out of 15 (26.7 percent) and BSP three out of the 12 (25 percent).
