588 ‘criminals’, 461 crorepatis contest in Maha polls

Maharashtra will see a total of 588 candidates with a criminal background battling the elections this time.

A report prepared by the National Election Watch states that of the 3,559 candidates battling in the elections, 588 have a criminal background.

The Shiv Sena [ Images ] tops the list with 98 of the 153 Sena candidates having at least one criminal record against them.

The Bharatiya Janata Party [ Images ] comes second with 66 such candidates. In all, the BJP has fielded 164 candidates.

The MNS stands third with 81 of the total 141 candidates having a criminal background.

The Congress has fielded 40 tainted candidates, the Nationalist Congress Party 40 and the Bahujan Samaj Party has 47.

The interesting fact about this list is that at least 50 per cent of the candidates with a criminal background are from Sindhurg district.

Talking about richness, the Maharashtra elections will witness 461 crorepati candidates this time.

While the Congress tops this list with 103 crorepatis, while the crorepati percentage in the NCP candidates list is 74 percent with 83 of the 112 being crorepatis.

Fifty-two percent of the BJP candidates are crorepatis (59 of 114 candidates), while the MNS has 34 crorepatis of its 141 candidates, the Sena has 69 crorepatis of its total 153 candidates, and the BSP has 17 crorepatis among 276 candidates.

Sindhurg district tops the chart once again with 58 per cent of the candidates from here being crorepatis.

The top five richest candidates in the polls are Abu Asim Azmi of the Samajwadi Party with Rs 126 crore, Abu Aasim Azam of the Samajwadi Party with Rs 126 crore, Jain Sureshkumar Bhikamchand of the Shiv Sena with Rs 79 crore, Bafna Rajkumar Sumermal of the Congress with Rs 34 crore and D Rajendra Jawaharlal of the Congress with Rs 32 crore

A total of 1,029 candidates have not furnished PAN card details.

Karnataka CM faces revolt by senior BJP leaders

K S Eshwarappa

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Karnataka Power Minister K S Eshwarappa has alleged that liquor had been used to woo voters to vote for Chief Minister B S Yedyurappa’s son B Y Raghavendra, who won the recently-held Lok Sabha polls from Shimoga.

Eshwarappa’s comments come in the wake of Yeddyurappa’s allegations about the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader not doing enough to ensure that his son wins by a larger margin. The incident has exposed the rifts within the ruling party in Karnataka.

Upset with the development, state party president D Sadananda Gowda had decided to issue a show cause notice to Eshwarappa, but the party high command has directed him to put that on hold.

Eshwarappa told reporters that he has briefed BJP president Rajnath Singh about the incident, who had directed Gowda to put the notice on hold.

However, the Karnataka CM continues to face more trouble from leaders of his own party. Janardhan Reddy and his brother Somashekhar Reddy, BJP leaders from Bellary, are unhappy about being sidelined in the government. The Reddy brothers have been eyeing the post of the deputy chief minister and they have the support of at least a dozen members of the Legislative Assembly.

The BJP high command, which is still reeling under its recent electoral drubbing, has decided to send senior leader Arun Jaitley to sort out the party’s affairs in Karnataka.

Dr Manmohan Singh’s richest ministers

Praful Patel

The United Progressive Alliance government comprises 47 crorepati ministers. Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel is the richest of the lot with assets worth Rs 89.9 crore.

In its report, the National Election Watch states that in the new government, Congress tops the list with 38 crorepatis while the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has 5, NCP-2 and National Conference and Trinamool Congress one crorepati minister each. The report also states that the average asset of ministers in this Lok Sabha is Rs 7.63 crore while that of the MPs in the new Lok Sabha is Rs 5.12 crore. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee is the poorest with assets worth Rs 4 lakh.

Praful Patel: Rs 89.9 crore

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, who hails from Bhandara Gondiya in Maharashtra, is worth Rs 89,906,4977 (Rs 89.9 crore).

Patel, who graduated from Mumbai’s Sydenham College prior to joining his family business, runs the Rs 500-crore CeeJay Group — the biggest beedi and tobacco-derivative makers.

He is also known as the Beedi King of Vidarbha.

Preneet Kaur: Rs 42.3 crore

Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur is worth Rs 423,043,438 (Rs 42.3 crore).

The Congress MP from Patiala in Punjab is the wife of former Punjab Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh and the daughter of former Punjab Chief Secretary Sr Gian Singh Kahlon.

The former Maharani Sahiba from Patiala attended St Bede’s College and graduated from convent of Jesus and Mary, Shimla.

Kapil Sibal

Kapil Sibal: Rs 31.97 crore

Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has assets worth Rs 319,722,459 (Rs 31.97 crore).

Elected from the Chandini Chowk constituency in New Delhi, Sibal was one of country’s topmost lawyers before he joined active politics.

Sibal attended Harvard Law School and also served as the Additional Solicitor General of India.

Vincent H Pala: Rs 25.16 crore

Minister of State in the Ministry of Water Resources Vincent H Pala has assets worth Rs 251,621,190 (Rs 25.16 crore).

Pala was elected from the Shillong constituency in Meghalaya. A civil engineer by profession, he was an assistant engineer in the Public Works Department of his state.

Pala, who is known as the trouble shooter for the Congress in Meghalaya, took voluntary retirement when he was the assistant chief engineer.

Virbhadra Singh: Rs 22.52 crore

Minister of Steel Virbhadra Singh has assets worth Rs 225,228,748 (Rs 22.52 crore).

Elected from Mandi constituency in Himachal Pradesh, Singh did his masters in arts in Shimla. Apart from being an honorary captain in the Indian Army, he was also an agriculturist and a horticulturist. He is a former cheif minister of HP.

Ministers with criminal antecedents

Subodh Kant Sahay

Nine ministers in the Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance government have criminal records pending against them. Of the nine ministers, one minister face serious charges, according to a National Election Watch report.

Find out the ministers with criminal antecedents.

Subodh Kant Sahay: Faces assault and being member of an unlawful Assembly charges. Has not been convicted yet.

Constituency: Ranchi

Wasnik Mukul Balkrishna: Faces charges of rioting and wrongful restraint.

Constituency: Ramtek in Maharashtra.

Harish Rawat faces charges of criminal conspiracy and defamation.

Constituency: Haridwar

Gandhiselvan

Gandhiselvan faces rash driving and causing grievous hurt.

Constituency: Namakkal

Arun Yadav faces charges of rioting and wrongful restraint.

Constituency: Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh.

Adhikari Sisir faces charges of rioting and voluntarily causing hurt. He has one serious charge under the Indian Penal Code registered against him.

Constituency: Kanthi in West Bengal.

Ajay Makan from Delhi faces charges of rioting and wrongful restraint.

Others are:

Pratik Prakashbabu Patil faces wrongful restraint charges. Constituency: Sangli

Pradeep Kumar Jain: Charges of rioting, wrongful restraint and criminal trespass. Constituency: Jhansi.

Meet the poorest MPs

Mamta Banerjee

The 543 Members of Parliament, who have been elected to the Lok Sabha, have combined assets of Rs 3,075 crore. There are an estimated 300 MPs with assets worth Rs one crore or more in the new Lok Sabha.

The Association for Democratic Reforms, in association with the National Election Watch, has compiled the list of the richest and poorest Members of Parliament. The list is based on the assets declared by the candidates, before the Election Commission, when they had filed their nominations for the Lok Sabha polls.

The richest candidate in the 15th Lok Sabha is Nama Nageshwar Rao, who won from Khammam in Andhra Pradesh, with a net worth of Rs 173 crore.

Let us now take a look at 10 of the poorest candidates in the Parliament.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who was elected from Kolkata Dakshin constituency, is the tenth poorest MP in the 15th Lok Sabha.

She may be the numerically storngest ally of the Congress but the Didi from Kalighat is worth on Rs 473,194.

Charandas Mahant of the Congress, who was elected from Korba constituency in Chattisgarh, tops the list of the poorest MPs. He has net assets worth only Rs 12,000.

His fellow Congressman N Peethambara Kurup, elected from Kollam constituency in Kerala, is at the second spot with Rs 150,600.

Lingam P of the Communist Party of India, elected from the Tenkasi constituency in Tamil Nadu, is the third poorest MP with Rs 159, 365.

Laxman Tudu of the Biju Janata Dal, who was elected from the Mayurbhanj constituency in Orissa, is at the number four spot with Rs 173,000.

Pradeep Kumar Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who was elected from the Araria constituency in Bihar, is worth Rs 257,014. He is the fifth poorest MP is Parliament.

Meenakshi Natarajan of the Congress, elected from the Mandsour constituency in Madhya Pradesh, is at the sixth spot. She has assets worth Rs 315,281.

Saroj Mondal of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who was elected from the Durg constituency in Chattisgarh, is seventh with Rs 379,787.

P K Biju

Dr Tarun Mondal, an independent candidate elected from Jaynagar in West Bengal, is at the eight spot. His net assets are worth Rs 433,667.

P K Biju of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, who was elected from Alathur constituency in Kerala, is at the ninth spot with Rs 461,000.

Why the BJP won in Karnataka

Karnataka was the saving grace for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the otherwise dismal showing in elections 2009. The BJP took everyone by surprise and proved every poll pundit wrong when it bagged 19 out of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka. This in fact is a better performance compared to the 2004 elections when the party won 18 seats only due to the Vajpayee wave.

Ever since the first BJP government in the South was formed a year ago, there have only been problems for the BJP. It started off with the firing on farmers in Haveri in which one farmer was killed. Although the BJP managed to ward away these initial problems, the biggest worry for the party was the church attacks in Mangalore which was followed by the violence against women in pubs.

Although these acts were carried out by the Bajrang Dal and the Shri Ram Sene respectively, the BJP government led by B S Yeddyurappa repeatedly told the people that his government was committed to acting against such violence. While the government managed to cool tempers where the church attacks were concerned people thought that the attack on women at the pub would be the party’s Waterloo in Karnataka. However, the BJP managed to prove everyone wrong.

There are five primary reasons why the BJP managed to take Karnataka so easily despite all the hurdles and negative campaigning that took place against it in the state.

Operation Lotus: Immediately after the party came to power in the state, the party launched Operation Lotus in which it managed to lure the cream from both the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular. At least 17 candidates from both parties were inducted into the BJP. These leaders who crossed over to the BJP have the reputation of winning elections irrespective of the party they belong to. This factor helped the BJP since these floor crossers campaigned extensively for the party.

Honeymoon period: The BJP has been in power in Karnataka for just a year now and hence it had the advantage of a honeymoon period. Explains Sandeep S, a noted psephologist, “The negative campaign against the party has not done any damage to it. The church attacks has not helped the party as is being claimed by some of its leaders. When a government is in power for such a short period, the people generally tend to overlook its mistakes.The people of Karnataka basically have given the BJP a chance to prove itself as they feel that it is too early to judge the party by certain issues that went wrong.

Early campaign: The BJP when compared to the Congress and the JD-S got off to a quick start where campaigning was concerned. The party announced its list of candidates much earlier than the rest of the parties. This fact worked to the advantage of the party. When the BJP had started its campaign, the Congress and the JD-S had not announced their list of candidates.

At first there was a lot of dissidence within the party at the commencement of the polls. The candidature of B Y Raghavendra, son of the chief minister, Janardhan Swamy and Nalin Kumar Kateel did not go down too well with some of the party members. However at the end of it the party worked as a well oiled machine and overcame these problems. The BJP was able to achieve this since it was in power in the state and hence was able to deal with this issue well.

Opposition’s attitude: The opposition Congress has only itself to blame for not capitalising on various failures of the BJP in the state. When the election process was announced, each one thought that the BJP would be put on the backfoot by the Congress. However, the Congress failed to capitalise on this factor and continued to remain a hopelessely divided force in Karnataka. Leaders of the party were more interested in safeguarding their factions rather than taking the party forward. There was a lot of infighting over the candidature of Margaret Alva, S Bangarappa, CK Jaffer Sharrief and HT Sangliana. There was a lot of negative campaigning by partymen against these candidatures. The joke in Karnataka is that no one defeats the Congress, but the party defeats itself. Speaking of the third largest party in Karnataka, the JD-S, the campaign was strong and vigorous only in certain parts of the state. The focus was more on Kumaraswamy, Zameer Ahmed and H D Deve Gowda and it seemed as though the party was more interested in winning only these three seats.

Better vote share: The BJP also benefitted immensely from an improvement in vote share. While in 2004, the party had a vote share of 34.8 per cent, this time around the party got 41.6 per cent of the vote. This is a major factor since if compared to the rest of the states, the BJP has not managed to increase its vote share compared to 2004.

The improvement of the party’s vote share in Karnataka is also largely due to a sympathy factor for the party in the state. The elections were regarded as BJP vs the rest. A large number of voters especially from the Hindu community felt that the party was being singled out and hence voted for it in large numbers. Take the Dakshin Kannada constituency for instance where no poll pundit got his or her prediction right. Mohan Bhandari, BJP district president says that there was a negative campaign against the party. There were sermons in churches urging the people to vote against the BJP. Voters both young and old were driven into Mangalore and asked to cast their vote against the BJP. However the Hindus in Dakshin Kannada felt that it was an uncessary campaign and decided to come out and vote in favour of the BJP in large numbers and in the bargain created a record of sorts. The polling percentage in Dakshin Kannada is the highest till date with 74.44 per cent of which the BJP got 49.16 per cent of the votes.

While the BJP managed to retain all the 18 seeats that it had won the last time, the party increased its tally by one thanks to delimitation. The new constituency, Bangalore Central was bagged by the BJP this time. The fact that the BJP managed to retain Bangalore, Bangalore-South, Bangalore-North and win Bangalore Central and Dakshin Kannada (formerly Mangalore) is also an indication that most of the urban voters has preferred this party.

Top 10 MPs with criminal background

The number of MPs with a criminal record has gone up this year. While the Bharatiya Janata Party [Images] tops the list with 43 MPs, the Congress comes a close second with 41 such MPs. In all there are 153 MPs with a criminal record and 74 of these MPs have serious charges levelled against them.

Here is a list of top ten MPs with a criminal background, compiled by the National Election Watch.

Name: Kameshwar Baitha (56)
Constituency represented: Palamau, Jharkhand
Party: Jharkhand Mukti Morcha
Criminal background: Accused in 35 cases and has 50 serious charges against him under the IPC
Convicted: Never

Name: Jagadish Sharma, (58)
Constituency represented: Jahanabad, Bihar
Party: Janata Dal-United
Criminal background: Accused in 6 cases and has 17 serious charges against him under the IPC
Convicted: Never

Name: Bal Kumar Patel (48)
Constituency represented: Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh [Images]
Party: Samajwadi Party
Criminal background: Accused in 10 cases and has 13 serious charges against him under the IPC
Convicted: Never

Name: Prabhatsinh Pratapsinh Chauvan (67)
Constituency represented: Panchamahal, Gujarat
Party: Bharatiya Janata Party
Criminal background: Accused in 3 cases and has 10 serious charges against him under the IPC
Convicted: Never

Name: Kapil Muni Karwariya (42)
Constituency represented: Phulpur, Uttar Pradesh
Party: Bahujan Samaj Party
Criminal background: Accused in 4 cases and has 8 serious charges against him under the IPC
Convicted: Never

Name: P Karunakaran (64)
Constituency represented: Kasargod, Kerala [Images]
Party: Communist Party of India-Marxist
Criminal background: Accused in 12 cases and has 6 serious charges against him under the IPC
Convicted: Never

Name: Kunvarji Mohanbhai Bavaliya (54)
Constituency represented: Rajkot, Gujarat
Party: Indian National Congress
Criminal background: Accused in 2 cases and has 6 serious charges against him under the IPC
Convicted: Never

Name: Vittalbhai Hansrajbhai Radadiya (51)
Constituency represented: Porbandar, Gujarat
Party: Indian National Congress
Criminal background: Accused in 16 cases and has 5 serious charges against him under the IPC
Convicted: Never

Name: Ramkishun (49)
Constituency represented: Chandauli, Uttar Pradesh
Party: Samajwadi Party
Criminal background: Accused in 10 cases and has 5 serious charges against him under the IPC
Convicted: Never

Name: Lalu Prasad Yadav [Images] (60)
Constituency represented: Saran, Bihar
Party: Rashtriya Janata Dal
Criminal background: Accused in 7 cases and has 5 serious charges against him under the IPC
Convicted: Never

Congress leaders celebrate victory

Ambika Soni, tourism and culture minister, outside the Congress headquarters celebrating the victory.

Hundreds of Congress supporters thronged the party headquarters in New Delhi by Saturday evening.
The mood was jubilant and upbeat.

Congress leaders like Ambika Soni had stationed themselves at the party HQ since the morning, briefing the media about the unfolding situation.

The drum beats of victory

Slogans saluting Sonia and Rahul Gandhi rent the air amidst drum beats and dancing on the streets.
The Delhi police had blocked roads since the morning to control the sea of people making their way to the Congress HQ.

An unexpected triumph

Several newly elected MPs arrived at the party headquarters and then moved to 10, Janpath, Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s home.

By the evening Congress leaders like Prithviraj Chauhan, Kamal Nath and Anand Sharma turned up to meet their leader and enjoy their moment of triumph.

The mobile phones of senior Congress leaders rang non-stop and many could not believe that the party had won most unexpected seats.

Remember the Gandhi topi?

The Gandhi topi and khadi kurta pyjamas made a comeback on Saturday. The topi had been conspicuously absent this election campaign.
Some party workers wore T-shirts with Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi’s photograph on it; some arrived, children in tow, clearly eager to savour victory.

North India provides an unexpected boost

The party made unexpected gains in an old bastion, Uttar Pradesh, and swept the BJP aside in Rajasthan.
Even in Madhya Pradesh, where it was supposed to win only Kamal Nath’s Chhindwara and Jyotiraditya Scindia’s Guna seats, the Congress produced a surprisingly strong show.

F-i-v-e M-o-r-e Y-e-a-r-s!

“Our struggle to be better will go on,” says Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh.

“Our next challenge would be the assembly elections in different states,” the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister added.

For many Congressmen, it was like a symphony to their ears to know that their party will rule India for the next five years.

Karnataka will send most BJP MPs to Lok Sabha

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s good run continued in Karnataka, where the party established its first government in south India.
BJP leaders will be pleased with the party’s performance in Karnataka where it bettered its 2004 tally by one seat — it won 19 Lok Sabha seats this election.

Karnataka will send the highest number of BJP MPs to the 15th Lok Sabha, more than Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh [Images] where the party had been expected to win more than 20 seats each, but did not do so.

Political observers feel Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, the BJP’s star campaigner in Karnataka, retained the popular appeal he exerted in last year’s assembly election, helping the party pick up urban and rural votes in equal numbers.

Another factor that helped the BJP perform well was the inevitable infighting in the Congress party, which was undecided about its candidates and faced bickering over seat allocation.

The Congress pinned its hopes on senior leaders like C K Jaffer Sharief, Janardhan Poojary and Margaret Alva, all of whom lost the election, largely, because of inner-party discontent over their candidature.

Another setback for the Congress was Krishna Byre Gowda’s defeat in the Bangalore South constituency at the hands of former Union minister Ananth Kumar who benefited from the division of votes between the young Congress nominee and Captain G R Gopinath, the high-profile Independent in the fray.

Ananth Kumar was also assisted by the low voter turnout in Bangalore South. Young voters stayed away from the polling booths which dented Byre Gowda’s chances.

The biggest surprise this election was the BJP retaining the Dakshina Kannada constituency. The result proved an embarrassment for pundits who had predicted a Congress victory. Last year’s attacks on churches and the January 24 attack on women in a pub were interpreted as hurting the BJP’s changes in its strongest bastion in the state.

Some say these forecasts made the Congress’s local unit over-confident, especially since the BJP and its sister units worked tirelessly to ensure newbie Nalin Kumar Kateel’s victory.

BJP sources told rediff.com that angry Hindu sentiment in the area helped Kateel vanquish Congress veteran Janardhan Poojary.

The BJP’s strong performance has strengthened Yeddyurappa’s position. The chief minister had come under attack from within his party and without in recent months.

Victory was especially sweet since his son B Y Raghavendra, who contested the Shimoga seat against former chief minister Sorab Bangarappa, won comfortably. The chief minister had been criticised within the BJP for what was perceived as dynastic politics.

Yeddyurappa also came under fire for nominating Janardhan Swamy to contest the Chitradurga seat. Again, the chief minister proved his critics wrong.

Congress leaders hail the ‘R factor’

Photograph Courtesy: Top News

The R factor seems to have worked this time. Many Congress workers believe that had it not been for party general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s charismatic leadership, the Congress would not have emerged as the single largest party.

Outside the Congress party headquarters in New Delhi, the only slogan one hears is ‘Rahul Gandhi zindaabad’. The only other leader whose name crops up in the sloganeering is Sonia Gandhi; no other leader is mentioned.

The Congress’ youth workers believe that generation next has arrived and it is Rahul who will lead the nation in the future. Rahul has repeatedly stressed on a more active participation by the youth wing of the Congress.

For veteran Congress leader Moti Lal Vohra, it is as if the days of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi have come back. “The Congress party is back in form and we are all elated with this victory. This is the first time India has reelected a coalition government as the National Democratic Alliance, under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee [Images], could not do that,” he said.

Though Rahul entered the political scenario five years ago, he started asserting himself in party matters only in the last six months.

Many feel that though Rahul maintained a low profile for a long time, he was slowly and steadily working with party workers across the country to rejuvenate them, says senior Congress leader Ambika Soni. “Rahul has been working among the people and the results have proven that,” she said.

Senior Congress leader Oscar Fernandes termed Rahul ‘the star of the campaign’ and added that the party did well largely due to the Gandhi scion’s efforts.

“Rahul campaigned in 106 places and worked relentlessly in each constituency to ensure a Congress win,” adds senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.

The Rahul factor has done wonders for the party, believes party general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi. “He led the campaign from the front. The youth engineering undertaken by Rahul has helped the party go a long way in the election,” he said.

Congress general secretary Mohsina Kidwai praised Rahul and added that the youth had come out in large numbers to vote for the party thanks to Rahul’s efforts.