35% of newly elected members of parliament in this Indian southern state just declared a fairly criminal past

• 77 (35%) of the 221 newly-elected Karnataka MLAs have declared criminal cases against themselves.
• 42 MLAs from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have criminal backgrounds.
  
• While 34% of the previous assembly (2013) had a criminal background the percentage was significantly lower in 2008 at 24%.

Karnataka Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) analysed affidavits submitted by the newly-elected MLAs (Member of the Legislative Assembly) in the Karnataka assembly. The results of the analysis were hardly surprising - 77 (35%) of the 221 newly-elected MLAs have declared criminal cases against themselves. Of these, 54 MLAs have declared serious criminal cases against them, which could include anything from murder to kidnapping. While 34% of the previous assembly (2013) had a criminal background the percentage was significantly lower in 2008 at 24%.

The elections in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka this week has been fraught with high drama. The results of 222/224 seats were as follows - the BJP won 104 seats, the Indian National Congress bagged 78 seats and the Janata Dal (Secular) won 37 seats. Needless to say, a battle ensued as to who would claim the throne but just today the BJP legislature party leader B S Yeddyurappa was sworn in as the chief minister.

According to the ADR analysis, 42 of the 104 MLAs from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have criminal backgrounds, while 23 of the 78 MLAs from the Congress party and 11 out of 37 Janata Dal (Secular) MLAs declared criminal cases against them in their affidavits.

Other shocking but not-so-shocking revelations from this report include:

Assets

• 215 out of 221 MLAs declared assets of over Rs 1 crore.
• 15 MLAs from the three leading parties declared assets of more than Rs 100 crore.
• MLA N. Nagaraju declared the highest assets of over Rs 1,015 crore whereas D.K Shivakumar (Rs 640 crore) came in second and Suresh B.S. (Rs 460 crore) third - all three belong to the Congress Party.
• SA Ramadas from Krishnaraja constituency in Mysuru is the poorest MLA with assets to the tune of just ₹39 lakh.

Gender

• There are only seven women among the 222 newly elected MLAs.

Education

• 61% declared that they are graduates or above, 36% declared themselves as Class V-XII pass
• One MLA has declared he is ‘literate’ while “one did not give his educational qualification in his affidavit."

Age

• 135 MLAs are between 41 and 60 years old
• 64 are between 61 and 60 years old
• 15 MLAs are between 25 and 40 years old
• Three are above 80 years old.