Out of 1,001 Karnataka candidates, 345 faced criminal cases: ADR report

Out of 1,001 analysed candidates in the recent Karnataka polls, 345 (34 per cent) candidates belonging to eight parties, including the BJP, the Congress, the AAP, and the JD-S, have declared criminal cases against themselves, a Karnataka Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report said.

"Out of 1,001 contesting candidates analysed belonging to eight political parties, 220 (22 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

"Out of 345 candidates with criminal cases, reasons have been furnished for 287 (83 per cent) candidates. Out of 220 candidates with serious criminal cases, reasons have been furnished for 191 (87 per cent) candidates and for 58 (17 per cent) candidates with criminal background, no reasons for their selection have been provided by political parties," the report said.

According to the report, Manikanta Rathod, who was the BJP candidate from Chittapur assembly constituency, has 45 registered cases and 15 other cases filed are of serious nature.

B. Nagendra, the current Minister and three times MLA from Bellary, has 105 cases of serious nature registered against him.

The report highlighted that there were 123 Congress candidates contesting in the elections with criminal background, 96 were from the BJP, 71 from the Janata Dal-Secular, 48 from the Aam Aadmi Party, two each from the BSP, the AIMIM, and the CPI-ML, and one from the CPI-M.

--IANS

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