With Telangana polls just around the corner, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), along with the Telangana Election Watch, released a report on Monday, highlighting the criminal cases that candidates face, their educational qualification, increase in their wealth and so on.
799 candidates declared their educational qualification to be between Classes 5 and 12 and 845 declared that they had an educational qualification of graduate or above.
Just 8% of all candidates – 136 women – are contesting the upcoming polls. The data of 44 candidates could not be analysed.
Criminal cases
Out of the 1,777 candidates analysed by ADR, 368 candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves, 231 candidates out of whom have serious criminal charges against them.
A serious criminal case was measured as one whose punishment is 5 years or more, is an electoral offence, is non-bailable, are related to loss to the exchequer; relate to assault, murder, kidnap or rape; offences that are mentioned in the Representation of the People Act and offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Six candidates have cases of murder against them, 24 with attempt to murder charges against them, four with cases related to kidnapping and 21 leaders have cases related to crimes against women against them.
The candidates who face charges under Section Section 302 of the IPC (Punishment for murder) are – Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s Vemula Veeresham from Nakrekal (SC), independent candidate Bommathi Vikram from Warangal West, Congress’ Shaik Mohd Kaleemuddin from Bahadurpura, Telugu Desam Party’s M Chandra Shekar from Mahbubnagar, independent candidate Merugu Srinivas from Jangaon and Telangana Prajala Party’s Md Arif from Serilingampally.
Candidates charged with Section 354 of the IPC (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) TRS leader Thanneeru Harish Rao and Congress leader Anumula Revanth Reddy.
44 candidates from TRS, 45 from Congress and 26 candidates from the BJP have serious criminal cases against them.
Wealth
The growth in the average assets of re-contesting MLAs is Rs. 5.66 crores i.e. it has recorded an increase of 70%. 192 candidates have wealth over Rs 5 crore.
While there are many candidates who have seen over a 100% increase in wealth, some candidates have seen over 1000% increase in wealth since the last elections.
Shakil Aamir Mohammed: Contesting from Bodhan on a TRS ticket, his wealth has gone up by 1311% – from Rs 1,34,08,582 to Rs 18,91,55,539.
Guvvala Balaraju: Contesting from Achampet (SC) on a TRS ticket, his wealth went up by 1336% – from Rs 48,51,000 to Rs 6,96,74,000.
Dasyam Vinay Bhasker: Contesting from Warangal West on a TRS ticket, his wealth increased by 1671% – from Rs 31,69,198 to Rs 5,61,23,057.
Raja Singh: Contesting from Goshamahal on a BJP ticket, Raja got 3376% richer during his previous tenure. His wealth went up from Rs 9,52,738 to Rs 3,31,17,897.
Gadari Kishore Kumar: TRS candidate from Thungathurthi (SC) and a prominent leader from Osmania University during the Telangana agitation for separate statehood, Kishore’s income went up by a whopping 5718% in the last four and a half years. His income went from Rs 1,82,328 to Rs 1,06,08,445.
Telangana goes to polls on December 7 and results will be announced on December 11. #KhabarLive
