Declarations and affidavits furnished at the time of filing nominations for the 2019 Jharkhand polls, results for which were declared on Monday, show that 41 out of the 81 newly elected MLAs have criminal cases against them.

17 out of 30 Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MLAs have criminal cases against them while eight out of 16 MLAs of all Congress have criminal cases lodged against them.

11 out of 25 BJP MLAs have criminal cases against them. In 2014 Jharkhand polls, 55 out of 81 MLAs had criminal cases registered against them.

Reacting to the information, Congress spokesperson Alok Dubey and JMM leader Bablu Pandey both said a person cannot be deprived of his/her right to contest elections until he or she is convicted.

Meanwhile, the state convenor of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said people of Jharkhand tend to be ignorant about the fact that their representatives have a criminal background.

"All they [voters] want is their issue to be raked up properly and redressal of their difficulties. Hence, these parameters do not usually count for the voters," the state convenor said.

As per the statistics released by ADR, 53 out of 81 MLAs in Jharkhand polls are crorepatis. The list figures names of prominent leaders including JMM chief Hemant Soren, Congress state president Rameshwar Oran, BJP's Bhanu Pratap Shahi and many others.

The ADR report also stated that 59 per cent of the MLAs elected are graduates or above.