Bengaluru, June 29 (IANS): Seven Karnataka Ministers, including Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, face criminal charges ranging from forgery to causing death by negligence, said two election watchdogs in a report here on Friday.
The report by the Karnataka Election Watch and Delhi-based Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) was based only analysis of the poll affidavits belonging to 26 of 27 cabinet ministers, save Women and Child Development Minister Jayamala, the lone woman minister, whose affidavit was not available, ADR said.
The other six ministers are Venkatrao Nadagouda (Animal Husbandry and Fisheries), B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan (Food and Civil Supplies), D.K. Shivakumar (Water Resources and Medical Education), D.C. Thammanna (Transport), N. Mahesh (Primary and Secondary Education) and Ramesh L. Jarkiholi (Municipalities and Local Bodies).
Twenty five of the 26 ministers are crorepatis, as per the asset declarations in their poll affidavits, with Shivakumar being the richest with total assets worth INR 840 crore.
Two of the ministers have only studied up to class 8 - with Higher Education Minister G.T. Deve Gowda being one of them.
A dozen of the 26 ministers have declared their educational qualifications to be between class 8 and 12, and 14 are graduates and above.
The BJP candidates were found to be with the highest number of criminal cases against them, with 83 (37 per cent) of the 223 in fray having criminal cases against them and 58 others (26 per cent) having serious criminal cases against them including murder, attempt to murder and kidnapping etc.
