According to the ADR report, the remaining four Southern states occupied the fifth to eighth spots in the country.
Kerala has the highest percentage of MLAs facing criminal cases in the country, a report said. The report by the Delhi-based Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Elections Watch (NEW) said 70 percent of Kerala MLAs were facing criminal cases.
Telangana figured in the top five with 60 percent of its elected representatives in the legislative Assembly facing criminal proceedings. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh followed Telangana.
Why Kerala?
The ADR and NEW put together data from “self-sworn” affidavits of the MLAs presented while contesting the elections to state Assemblies and Union Territories across the nation.
The report analysed the affidavits of 4,001 MLAs (out of 4,033) belonging to 62 political parties.
Of the 4,001 MLAs, 1,777 (44 percent) have criminal cases registered against them.
In Kerala, 95 MLAs in the 140-member strong Assembly declared that they were facing criminal cases. The state last went to elections in 2021.
Of the 95 MLAs, 37 have been charged with serious offenses such as murder, rape, and others.
Among the regional parties, three of the five MLAs (60 percent) from Kerala Congress (Mani), two from the Congress, and one each from Janadhipathiya Kerala Congress and Kerala Congress (Jacob) were battling cases in courts.
“This could be due to the high rate of reporting crime in Kerala. If you have to be a politician, you should be prepared to deal with people, since they are aware of their rights,” J Devika, professor at the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram, told South First.
“However, compared to other crime-prone states such as Uttar Pradesh, the situation in Kerala is better,” she added.
Devika pointed out that several young MLAs in Kerala have a history of being part of violent incidents.
The BJP doesn’t have an MLA in Kerala.
Meanwhile, the four other Southern States — Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh — occupied the fifth to eighth spots on the list of MLAs with criminal cases.
Telangana and Tamil Nadu
Telangana occupied the fifth spot. The report said 72 MLAs in the state have at least one criminal case registered against them. As many as 46 MLAs submitted that they were charged with serious offences, the report said.
Among them, the ruling BRS — formerly TRS — MLAs accounted for the most number of lawmakers with criminal cases. The report said 60 of BRS’s 103 MLAs have declared criminal charges against them. Telangana will go to the polls in December this year to elect 119 MLAs.
Tamil Nadu came behind Telangana in the sixth position, followed by Karnataka.
As many as 134 of Tamil Nadu’s 224 MLAs were facing criminal proceedings. Of the 60 percent of MLAs with criminal cases, 57 have serious charges filed against them.
Nationally, DMK figured third on the list of parties with 99 MLAs (out of 131) facing criminal charges (76 percent). The BJP and the Congress were in the first two slots with 479 (out of 1,356) and 334 (out of 719) MLAs analysed, respectively, entangled in criminal cases.
Andhra and Karnataka
In Karnataka, 55 percent of the MLAs across parties have criminal cases registered against them. The report analysed 223 sitting MLAs in the state and found 122 lawmakers with criminal cases.
Out of the 122 MLAs, 71 were facing serious criminal cases. “This amounts to 32 percent of the total sitting 223 MLAs analysed,” the report said.
In Andhra Pradesh, 55 percent of MLAs — 95 of the 174 MLAs analysed — have been booked at least once in their lifetime.
As many as 83 of the 146 YSRCP MLAs analysed declared that they were facing criminal cases. Of the 146 MLAs, 48 lawmakers (33 percent) have serious cases registered against them.
Bihar, Delhi, and Maharashtra came in the second, third, and fourth spots after Kerala.
While 67 percent of Bihar’s MLAs (161 out of 242 analysed) were booked at least once, 63 percent of Delhi’s MLAs (44 of 70) were facing serious criminal charges.