Recently, assembly elections were held in five states – Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur. In these states, 45 percent of the MLAs elected from the assembly elections are those against whom criminal cases are registered. These MLAs have said in their affidavits that they are facing criminal cases. This has been revealed in a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch. This report is based on the analysis of affidavits submitted by candidates at the time of election nominations. The report shows that out of 690 candidates who won the assembly elections in Punjab, Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, 312 (45%) admitted to having serial cases against them. Not only this, 219 of these MLAs (32 per cent) have serious criminal cases registered against them.

hat is in this report

• Of the total 690 seats in these five states, BJP has won 356, Samajwadi Party 111, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on 94 and Congress 55. Apart from this, smaller parties have won the rest of the seats.
• Out of 356 BJP MLAs, 134 have criminal cases registered against them. At the same time, 71 out of 111 SP MLAs have criminal cases registered. Talking about AAP, 52 out of 94 MLAs and 24 out of 55 Congress MLAs are facing criminal cases.
• In Uttar Pradesh, 39 per cent of the winning candidates have serious cases registered against them.
• At the same time, 23 percent of MLAs in Punjab, 33 percent in Goa, 14 percent in Uttarakhand and 18 percent in Manipur are facing serious cases.

87% candidates are crorepatis

Of the winning candidates in these five states, 87 percent or 598 candidates are crorepatis. Talking about education, there are 178 (26%) candidates who have studied from class 5th to 12th. At the same time, 487 (71%) candidates are graduates or have a higher degree. In addition, 15 candidates are diploma holders. Of these, nine candidates have declared themselves to be only literate, while one candidate has not shared any information about his/her educational qualification.

60% candidates age between 41-60

Of these, a total of 104 (15%) elected MLAs are between 25 and 40 years old, while 416 (60%) candidates have stated their age as between 41 and 60 years. The winning 168 (24%) candidates have declared their age between 61 and 80 years. At the same time, there are 2 candidates whose age is more than 80 years.

Only 11% of the winning candidates were women

Of the 690 winning candidates, 614 are males while 76 or only 11 per cent of them are females. Thus, the participation of women candidates in these assembly elections was very less.