Their average assets are valued at Rs 20.16 crore

Panaji: Surpassing their peers in wealth, Goan MLAs are the richest among the MLAs of the five states where assembly elections were recently held, according to The National Election Watch and Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR). 

An analysis of candidates, who won the 2022 assembly elections in five states- Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, show that Goa’s newly-elected MLAs have average assets valued at `20.16 crore vis-a-vis `10.45 crore for Punjab, `8.06 crore for Uttar Pradesh and `7.17 crore for Uttarakhand.  Comparatively, the newly-elected MLAs of Manipur are the poorest with average assets of `3.75 crore.

The ADR study shows that 98% of Goa’s MLAs are crorepatis.  In terms of criminality, the state ranks second after Uttar Pradesh by way of MLAs with serious criminal cases. While Uttar Pradesh has 39% of its MLAs with serious crimes registered against them, Goa’s 33% of MLAs have background of serious crimes.

Punjab is third in the list of MLAs with serious crimes (23%), followed by Manipur in the fourth position (18%) and Uttarakhand (14%).

Top three MLAs in Goa with history of serious crimes are Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate, BJP/ Panaji, Digambar Kamat, INC/ Margao and Michael Lobo, INC/ Calangute. Unlike Uttar Pradesh, there are no MLAs in Goa with charges of murder against them.

The analysis by poll-rights group shows that, in all, 45% of election winners in the five states have declared criminal cases against them.

ADR analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all 690 winning candidates in the assembly elections of the five states.              

Of the 690 candidates, 312 have a background of criminal cases. The BJP, which won the polls in four states, has the highest number of MLAs with criminal cases (134), while 71 are from the Samajwadi Party, 52 from the Aam Aadmi Party, 24 from the Congress and seven from RLD.

The education details of the 690 winning candidates show that 26% are standard 5 to 12th pass, while 71% are graduates or have higher degrees and two per cent are diploma holders. Further nine winning candidates have declared themselves to be just literate and one candidate did not give his educational qualification.