44 candidates with criminal background won with 50%-plus vote share

As many as 44 out of 77 winners, who have declared criminal cases against them, have won with a vote share of 50% and above in the recently-concluded elections to the Karnataka assembly. And 95 (44%) out of 215 crorepatis who won the election too, have won with a vote share of 50% and above, reveals an independent analysis made by the Association for Democratic Reforms and Karnataka Election Watch (KEW).

The two organisations have analysed the vote share, margin of victory and representativeness for the 222 constituencies in Karnataka Assembly elections 2018. The analysis throws light on the voting pattern this election. The winners of the 2018 assembly election won by an average of 48% of total votes polled, which is 4% more than that of the 2013 election.

One of the trends that has been observed is how the voters have backed candidates with criminal backgrounds. Forty nine out of 77 winners with declared criminal cases have won against a runner-up with a clean background. In fact, among the 49 winners, 12 have won with a margin above 12%.

The analysis has also revealed that 51% of the winning candidates from BJP have got less than 50% of the total votes polled in their constituencies, and the case is the same with 61% of winners from Congress and half of the winners from JD(S), indicating the winning margin, which is not huge among them.