Criminal cases against more than one-third sitting MLAs in Karnataka

Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah

Karnataka is gearing up for its Assembly elections in May and political parties are in the middle of deciding who their candidates are going to be. In the current state assembly, close to 35 per cent of Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) had criminal cases registered against them when they were elected in 2013, according to a report by The Economic Times.

Earlier this year, the Centre had told the Supreme Court that out of the 1,765 Members of Parliament (MPs) and MLAs across India, 36 per cent were facing criminal trial. After this, the apex court gave its nod to set up special courts to try criminal cases against the elected representatives in India.

In 2013, the Association for Democratic Reforms, a non-partisan NGO, submitted an analysis of MLAs in Karnataka. The report covers criminal cases, assets, gender and education qualification of the MLAs elected in 2013.

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According to the analysis, 193 out the 207 MLAs declared assets above at least Rs 1 crore, with majority of them having assets valued over Rs 5 crore. Govindarajnagar MLA Priyakrishna was the richest MLA with assets worth Rs 910 crore and Jagalaur (Davangere) MLA HP Rajesh was the least rich, with assets worth Rs 7.5 lakh.

Around 62 per cent of the MLAs declared their educational status to be graduates and above, the analysis document states.

A large number of the sitting MLAs are middle-aged, with 75 of them aged between 41 and 50. The number of female legislators in Karnataka in 2008 was only three, but the number doubled in 2013, with six female legislators.

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