Karnataka polls: BJP fields most criminals, Congress the richest candidates

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is at the first spot and the Congress is at the second position in giving tickets to candidates with criminal background in the Karnataka Assembly Election 2018, says a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The top three candidates with highest assets among all the candidates in fray belong to the ruling Congress -- Priyakrishna, from Govindarajanagar constituency with Rs 10.20 billion worth total assets, N Nagaraju from Hosakote Assembly seat with assets valued at Rs 10.15 billion and the state Energy Minister D K Shivakumar from Kanakapura segment with Rs 8.4 billion assets.
The ADR released the report after analysing the affidavits filed by 2,560 candidates, which said that 391 candidates declared criminal cases against themselves.

Of the total candidates, the watchdog could not analyse details of 95 candidates belonging to national, regional, local and fringe parties, as their affidavits were badly scanned or were incomplete on the websites of the poll panel and the Chief Electoral Officer of the southern state

Why Karnataka polls 2018 will be no repeat of 2013 success for Siddaramaiah

Midway through Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s term, which began in 2013, a television channel commissioned a survey – “If elections were held tomorrow, what would be the outcome?” C-Fore, the agency that conducted the survey announced that the Congress party could take as many as 120 to 132 seats in the 224-seat state Assembly. The channel that had commissioned it would not believe the results, so it decided not to telecast the survey, leaving it to C-Fore to make the results public.

But, surely, you have to concede that the outcome was unexpected – both because of who Siddaramaiah is and what he has done in Karnataka.

Siddaramaiah’s political lineage is well-known. He was in the JD(S), as one of HD Deve Gowda’s young lieutenants, until he began to feel his rise in the party was limited because Deve Gowda was promoting his sons. He joined the Congress, and he transformed it in many ways, with a combination of social justice and distributive justice tools. He projected himself as anti-intellectual (many in his own party used to refer to him as "Nidde Ramaiah" or ‘Sleepy Ramaiah’, and Kumbhakarna, after Ravan's somnolent brother”). But Siddaramaiah begged, borrowed and stole ideas to bed the Congress down to a model of development different from other states in the country.

BJP hits Rahul for visiting Karnataka temple after 'eating chicken'

Karnataka BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa on Monday hit out at Congress President Rahul Gandhi for reportedly visiting a temple after eating "Javari chicken" during his ongoing tour of northern parts of the poll-bound state.

"At one side there is 10 per cent CM Siddaramaiah who took darshan of Dharmasthala Manjunatha after eating fish, on the other side there is Election Hindu @OfficeOfRG (Rahul Gandhi) who took darshan of Narasimha swamy after eating Javari chicken," Yeddyurappa said in a tweet in Kannada.

"Why is Congress repeatedly hurting Hindu sentiments? Looking at every one equally is Samajawad (socialism), your's is majawad (enjoyment)," Yeddyurappa, the Chief ministerial candidate of BJP, said in the tweet with clippings of reports about Gandhi visiting the temple after 'eating' chicken.
Last year, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was involved in a controversy for eating fish at lunch before going to the Lord Manjunatha Swamy temple.