Know Your Candidates

Bangalore Political Action Committee undertook a detailed study focusing on the 27 Assembly Urban constituencies of Bengaluru and today launched the “Know Your Candidates” campaign having details of 115 (of the 378) candidates contesting for Karnataka State Legislative Assembly polls 2023. Under this initiative, B.PAC in association with DAKSH has conducted a specific study about the criminal cases filed against these candidates and also released a special report on the criminal complaints filed.

The Know Your Candidate is an initiative intended to create awareness among the citizens about the candidates across national parties, state parties and independents, contesting the Karnataka Elections 2023 of their respective constituencies in the city of Bengaluru. Under this initiative, politically relevant information about the candidates have been collated and presented in a simple form thus letting the constituents know their candidates better and make an informed choice while voting. The information includes basic details, education, profession, assets, liabilities, criminal record and social media handles as provided in the affidavit filed with the Election Commission of India. This initiative was carried out for candidates from National parties, State parties and some independents.

DAKSH prepared the Special Report on Criminal Cases by analysing the self-sworn affidavits of 115 candidates contesting in Bangalore from the four major political parties and few select independents. The affidavits are available on the ECI and the CEO Karnataka websites. A detailed analysis was conducted to understand the nature of cases and the number of cases against each candidate. This was done to help the public understand the nature and severity of the cases that have been declared in the affidavits to make an informed choice.

We found that 38 of the 115 candidates we analysed had criminal complaints filed against them. While some of them are the stage of investigation, most are pending before the Courts.

Links to

- Criminal Cases Analysis Report

- Criminal Analysis Infographic

- Karnataka Elections 2023 Result Report: 27 Bengaluru Assembly Constituencies

- Press Release

English Kannada