35% of newly elected MLAs have criminal past: ADR

Seventy-seven of the 221 MLAs elected in the May 12 Assembly polls have declared that they have criminal cases pending against them. While the percentage of elected MLAs with criminal background was 34% in the previous assembly, it has gone up by 1 percentage point this time.

Karnataka Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)’s analysis of affidavits of the newly elected MLAs (excluding B Harshavardhan from Nanjangud constituency whose affidavit was not clear), has revealed that the number of BJP MLAs with criminal background is higher than that of the Congress. The percentage of Congress and JD(S) MLAs with criminal background has gone down from 31% to 30% and 31% to 30%, respectively.

MLAs with declared criminal cases has shot up from 33% to 41% this election. Forty MLAs were elected from the BJP in 2013 and 104 are elected this ti-The analysis has also revealed that the MLAs of Karnataka have grown wealthier; 98% of the MLAs are crorepatis. It was 93% in 2013 election and 63% in 2008 election. In numbers, 215 of the 221MLAs have assets worth crores. The share of BJP, Congress and the JD(S) is almost the same. 505 of the MLAs have property above ₹10 crore.


Hosakote MLA MT B Nagaraju is the richest MLA with an asset of ₹1,015 crore, followed by Kanakapura MLA DK Shivakumar whose asset is worth ₹840 crore. SA Ramadas from Krishnaraja constituency in Mysuru is the poorest MLA with an asset of ₹39 lakh.