NEW DELHI: Around 92 per cent of the re-contesting Congress candidates in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly polls are crorepatis, an Association of Democratic Reforms report said.Of the 218 names announced so far by the Congress, 148 are re-contesting candidates of which 134 are crorepatis. In case of the BJP, of the 111 candidates, 97 have assets over Rs 1 crore, while 46 of the 58 JD(S) candidates have declared assets over Rs 1 crore.
The top three richest candidates also belong to the Congress. Priyakarishna from Govindrajanagar tops the list with assets worth Rs 910 crore, followed by N Nagaraju, the candidate from Hosakote who has declared his worth to be Rs 470 crore. He is followed by Anil H Lad from Bellary with Rs 288 crore. The richest candidate of the BJP is NS Nandiesha Reddy from KR Pura with Rs 118 crore worth assets. In the case of JD(S), K Bagegowda from Basavangudi has declared assets worth Rs 250 crore.
The average assets of Congress candidates are Rs 28 crore while that of the BJP’s is Rs 8 crore. The JD(S)’ average assets per candidate are Rs 14 crore.With regard to criminal cases, the Congress has 48 candidates who have declared cases against them while 23 have declared serious criminal charges against them. The saffron party has 30 candidates with criminal charges against them. The Kumaraswamy-led party has nine candidates with serious criminal charges while it has 17 candidates in the fray with criminal charges.