In its preliminary analysis of candidates announced by ruling Congress and opposition BJP, and JD(S) for Karnataka 2018 assembly elections, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) Wednesday revealed that major political parties continue to give tickets to candidates with serious criminal cases.
It said all the three major players have also relied on wealthy candidates. For the 224-member assembly, the Congress has announced a first list of 218 candidates while the BJP 154 and JD(S) 126 candidates so far.
Congress’ out of 218 candidates, 148 candidates had contested (including the 112 re-contesting MLAs) assembly elections in 2013. Out of these 134 are croropaties while 48 are facing criminal charges and of them 23 have serious criminal case.
Out BJP’s declared 154 candidates, 97 or 87percent are crorpatis while 30 have criminal cases and of them 19 have serious criminal cases.
The Janata Dal (secular) also has given ticket to 46 crorpaties while its 17 candidates have criminal cases and of them 9 have serious cases. The party has so far declared name of 126 candidates which has fighting the election along with BSP and other parties.
The ADR said it is unfortunate that political parties continued to give tickets to criminal background persons.
“We recommend that political parties should refrain from giving tickets to candidates with a serious criminal background and they should take a stand against misuse of money power, bribing of voters and distribution of freebies.”
It also asked the political parties to move towards transparency and disclose the criteria for selection of candidates during elections.
The polling is scheduled on May 12 and the results will be announced on May 15.