The dark side of CNN-IBN

The Karnataka assembly elections is turning out to be a huge bore. There are no burning issues being debated. The drama surrounding the failed alliance of BJP and JD(S) and the subsequent betrayal by JD(S) has gone stale.

For their part, all the parties have announced massive largesses. We liked the Congress manifesto, why work when you can vote for Congress?

So far, the secular media didn't have too much headroom to play. CNN-IBN made a mild attempt to add a communal spin earlier. Today they seemed to have struck gold:

Forty seven candidates with criminal records are present in the electoral fray for the first phase of elections in Karnataka being held on May 10, an organisation said.

Among the major parties, the BJP has 12 candidates with criminal records, BSP nine, the Congress 10, JD(S) 13, JD(U) and Samajwadi party and Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha (KCVP) one each, the NGO which conducted the study, Association for Democratic Reforms, said. [link]

So far CNN-IBN never really paid any attention to the ADR election watch report, because in most cases it makes Congress look pretty bad. During the last Gujarat assembly elections, this statistic didn't even find a passing mention in the newspaper. As luck would have it, Congress narrowly beats BJP (10 versus 12) in the number of candidates with criminal past, in Karnataka. The item was the lead story on the site for almost half a day.

Also note the convenient alphabetical ordering of the parties.

The report then suddenly takes a detour into irrelevant editorial comments, thus burying the other related stats:

There are 14 candidates who have declared assets of over Rs 30 crore, of this five are from BJP, seven from Congress, and two from the JD(S), he said.

Candidates who have "high assets" between Rs 5 crore and Rs 30 crore exist in all the parties. The BJP has 14, BSP nine, INC 21, JD(S) 19, Sastry stated.

There are 33 candidates who have declared very low assets of Rs one lakh or less. The BJP has one, BSP 11, INC two, JD(S) two,JD(U) five and SP 12.

Keep in mind these stats are only for the first phase of the election. We will be curious to see what the stats for the other two phases look like.