90 new MLAs in the 230-seat Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly have serious criminal cases against the, poll watchdog ADR said in its latest report.
Madhya Pradesh Assembly Election Results: As many as 90 newly-elected members of the 230-member Legislative Assembly have criminal cases against them, a watchdog report has revealed. According to a report published by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), around 39 percent of the new lawmakers in the states have serious criminal cases against them.
“90 winning candidates out of the 230 analysed in 2023 have declared criminal cases against themselves. Similarly, 34 winning candidates out of 230 which is nearly 15 per cent, in the state have declared serious criminal cases against themselves,” the ADR report revealed.
Of these 90 MLAs having criminal cases, 51 belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 38 belong to the Congress and one from the Bharatiya Adivasi Party, it said.
The numbers are slightly better compared to 2018 polls when 94 new MLAs had declared criminal cases against themselves out of the 230-seat Assembly– 47 of the 94 MLAs had serious criminal cases, including rape and murder.
89 percent ‘Crorepatis’ in 230-seat MP Assembly
The ADR report further revealed that 205 newly-elected legislators in the state– almost 89 percent– are crorepatis or billionaires. Of these crorepati MLAs, 144 are from the BJP while 61 belong to the Congress.
The number of crorepati MLAs in the state has increased in comparison to that of last assembly polls as during the 2018 assembly polls, 187 MLAs were crorepatis.
BJP MLA from Ratlam city constituency in Ratlam district, Chetanya Kasyap is the richest elected lawmaker in the state with total declared assets worth over Rs 296 crores. Similarly, another BJP MLA from Vijayraghavgarh assembly seat in Katni district, Sanjay Satyendra Pathak is the second richest MLA having wealth of over Rs 242 crores followed by Congress MLA Kamal Nath who has a total wealth of over Rs 134 crores, the report said.
161 winning MLAs graduates or above
As per the report, 161 winning candidates are graduates or above educational qualification. Similarly, 64 candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between class 5th pass and class 12th pass, while three winning candidates are Diploma Holders and two are just literate.
Out of 230 winning candidates, only 27 candidates around 12 per cent are women. Though the number of women MLAs in the state is a bit higher than that of the last assembly polls. During the 2018 assembly polls, out of 230 MLAs, 21 MLAs, around nine per cent, were women, the ADR report added.
ADR is an non-profit organisation which discloses criminal, financial, and educational background of the candidates contesting elections.
Madhya Pradesh went to polls for 230 assembly seats in a single phase on November 17 and the counting of votes was done on Sunday. The BJP registered a comprehensive victory in the state by winning 163 seats while the Congress stood at second place, winning 66 seats, while the Bharat Adivasi Party won one seat.