The new municipal corporations will bear an interesting look. Every second councillor is a crorepati, every third councillor a school dropout and every sixth councillor has a police case against him/her. Above all, many are young. These facts have come up from the analysis of the affidavits of 236 councillors done by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) a non-government election monitoring group. These affidavits were submitted by the councillors to the state election commission while filing their nominations for the municipal polls.
According to the analysis, 120 newly elected councillors (or 51% of the 236 affidavits scrutinised by ADR) have assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore.
The BJP, which has 137 councillors across the three corporations, has 68 crorepatis, the Congress has 30 and the BSP has four. Among male councillors, 55% are crorepatis. Also, 47% of women councillors are crorepatis.
Though the educated generally do not consider politics a profession worth trying, the new MCD does have many educated faces. Two councillors - Rajni Abbi and Shobha Vijender, both from BJP - are doctorates.
In contrast, another two - Om Wati (from Vasant Kunj) of Congress and Rekha Poswal (from Pul Pehlad) of the BJP - are illiterates.
The new House boasts of 68 graduates and 23 post-graduates. On the flip side, there are eight who have studied up to Class V and 23 who could only reach Class VIII.
Also, it seems that young faces will be calling the shots in the new House. Almost 75% of the councillors are less than 50 years of age, which according to the Indian standard is considered young for a politician. While six councillors are less than 25 years old, 16 are below the age of 30. There are 73 councillors who are yet to cross 40 years.