Votes are in: It's win-win for the rich in Karnataka assembly elections

The wealth disparity between those who get elected and the rest is widening

In an interview leading up to his last election in 2004, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee rued the role of money power. “Jantantra, dhantantra mein badal rahan hain,” he said (democracy is being replaced by rule of the rich).

Karnataka, which voted in assembly elections on May 10, bears out what Vajpayee said. The wealth of the average winner in Karnataka assembly elections has been rising over time, shows an analysis of data from the Delhi-based Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The median winner had total assets worth Rs 1.5 crore in 2008. It rose to Rs 9.7 crore by 2018. The median winner’s assets were worth eight times more that of the median candidate in 2008. The disparity had widened to 29 times by 2018 as seen in chart 1 (click image for interactive chart).

Among the southern states in their last conducted election; winners had 33 times the median candidate’s assets in Telangana, 34 times in Andhra Pradesh and 42 times in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu’s relatively high ratio is also to do with the fact that the median candidate there had around Rs 10 lakh in assets compared to Rs 33 lakh for the median Karnataka candidate. Karnataka’s median asset value for winners is the highest among the southern states. Kerala is at the other end where median winner assets in the last election, in 2021, was Rs 1.1 crore. This was three times the median candidate assets, giving it the lowest candidate-winner gap in south India (chart 2).

Assets owned by the median winner in Karnataka was 355 times the state’s per capita income in 2008. The per capita income is broadly a measure of how much the average person makes every year in the state. The ratio was 774 in 2013 and 524 in 2018. In other words, it can take a few centuries to earn income equivalent to the assets of those ruling the state.

The share of crorepatis among Karnataka election candidates has gone up from 25 per cent in 2008 to 42 per cent in 2023. The share of crorepati legislators in the assembly increased from 64 per cent in 2008 to 96 per cent in 2018 (chart 3).

The average Indian makes less than Rs 2 lakh a year.