Kerala goes to polls on April 13 to elect 140 legislators. Of the 970 candidates in the fray, the records of 335 were studied and it was observed that 153 among them have criminal records and 53 are crorepatis. Among the 153 tainted candidates 30 have confessed that they have serious charges against them such as murder, extortion, causing hurt by dangerous weapon etc.
Candidates with most criminal cases:
Liju from the Congress, who is contesting from the Ambalapuzha constituency, tops the list with a total of nine pending cases against him.
S Subhash Chandra of the Communist Party of India-Marxist from the Chitoor constituency has four pending cases
M Divakaran, an independent candidate from the Dharmadam constituency. has two cases pending against him, but has been charged on nine very serious counts under the Indian Penal code.
E S Purushotham of the Bharatiya Janata Party from the Paravur constituency has one case pending against him. M Premkumar of the BJP from the Vallikunnu constituency also has one case pending against him
Crorepati candidates:
Of these the maximum number of candidates whose assets run into crores are from the Kerala Congress-Mani with 46 per cent of those contesting falling into this category. The Communist Party of India comprises of only four per cent of the richest candidates in the state among the 335, who have been analysed.
The richest candidates from Kerala:
Udaya Bhaskar of the BJP and Mani C Kappan of the Nationalist Congress Party top the list with assets worth Rs 15 crore each.
Manjala M K of the Muslim League is worth Rs 14 crore
K Muralidheeran of the Congress is worth Rs 10 crore
Shev T Kuruvilla of the KC-M is valued at Rs 8 crore
The poorest candidates from Kerela:
V A Krishnakumara of the BJP has assets valued at Rs 1,000
M Rijil of the Congress is worth Rs 2,509
R S Pattazhi of the BJP is worth Rs 12,500
In Puducherry:
In Puducherry 24 candidates (ie 13 per cent of 183 candidates surveyed by the Puducherry Election Watch) have said that they criminal charges pending against them. Of the 24, five candidates have been charged with serious offences like kidnapping and extortion under the IPC.
Of the 10 All India Anna Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam questioned four have criminal records, two from the DMK out of the 10 candidates fall in this category. Only one Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam was quizzed and he was found to be tainted and of the 20 BJP candidates in question, one was guilty of a crime.
A total of 48 candidates, ie 26 per cent of 183 analysed are crorepatis.
