Locked in a three corner fight in the Telangana Assembly Polls, major political parties have not shied away from fielding candidates despite pending criminal cases against them.

While muscle power has ensured tickets to many, it seems the money bags have also found favours in ticket allocations cutting across party lines.

A majority of candidates fielded by the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), Congress and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) are crorepatis.

The Telangana Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 1,777 out of 1,821 candidates, who are contesting the Telangana Assembly Elections.

Out of 1,777 candidates analysed, 367 are from national parties, 268 are from state parties, 490 are from registered unrecognized parties and 652 candidates are contesting independently.

Criminal backgrounds

Out of 1,777 candidates analyzed, 368 (21 per cent) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves while 231 (13 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases.

There are six candidates who have declared cases related to murder (Indian Penal Code, section 302), 24 candidates have declared cases related to attempt to murder (Indian Penal Code, section 307), four candidates have declared cases related to kidnapping such as kidnapping or abducting in order to murder (IPC, section 364), kidnapping for ransom (IPC Section-364A) and kidnapping or abduction with the intent to secretly and wrongfully confine a person (IPC Section-365).

There are 21 candidates who have declared cases related to crime against women such as a husband or relative of a husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty (IPC, section 498A) and assaulting or exerting criminal force on a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty (IPC section 354).

Among the major parties, 44 (37 per cent) out of 118 candidates from BJP, 69 (70 per cent) out of 99 candidates from Congress, 65 (55 per cent) out of 119 candidates from TRS, and 27 out of 100 candidates from BSP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Twenty six (22 per cent) out of 118 candidates from BJP, 45 out of 99 candidates from Congress, 44 (37 per cent) out of 119 candidates from TRS, and 18 out of 100 candidates from BSP have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

There are 78 (66 per cent) constituencies in the Telangana assembly elections with three or more candidates with declared criminal cases.

Financial backgrounds

Out of the 1,777 candidates, 438 (25 per cent) are crorepatis. Eleven per cent (192) candidates in the poll fray have assets worth Rs 5 crore and above.

While, there are 7 per cent (120) candidates with assets between Rs 2 crore and Rs 5 crore, 15 per cent (275) have assets worth between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2 crore.
Twenty six per cent of candidates (453) have assets between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 50 lakh. Forty one per cent candidates (737) have assets of less than Rs 10 lakh.

Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy of Congress contesting from Munugode is the richest candidate in poll fray. He has declared assets worth Rs 314 crore. Next is Sunil Kumar Muthyala of BSP from Balkonda seat with assets worth Rs 182 crore while Marri Janardhan Reddy of TRS is the third richest candidate. He is contesting from Nagarkurnool has declared assets worth Rs 161 crore.

Among the major parties 86 (73 per cent) of 118 candidates from BJP, 79 (80 per cent) of 99 candidates from Congress, 26 (26 per cent) out of 100 candidates analysed from BSP, 107 (90 per cent) out of 119 candidates from TRS, 12 (92 per cent) out of 13 candidates from TDP have declared assets worth over Rs 1 crore.

The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Telangana assembly elections is Rs 3.29 crore. Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 119 TRS candidates is Rs 12.48 crore. For 118 BJP candidates it is Rs 7.79 crore while for 99 Congress candidates, their assets average Rs 16.03 crore. A hundred BSP candidates have average assets worth Rs 5.28 crore.

Other Background Details

Forty five per cent (799) candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between Classed 5 and 12 while 845 (48 per cent) candidates have declared having graduate educational qualifications or above.

Sixteen candidates have declared to be just literate and 48 candidates are illiterate. Eight per cent (136) female candidates are contesting in the Telangana assembly election this year