The state's richie rich club in the Assembly straddles the political divide - ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress. And despite being out of power for a decade, seven in the Top-10 crorepati club are from the Congress. And a mind-boggling 40% MLAs in backward Madhya Pradesh are crorepatis, says the report of National Election Watch-Association for Democratic Reforms.
The report states 87 crorepatis were elected to the 230-member House in the 2008 assembly elections. The ruling BJP can pride itself for having a maximum 50 crorepatis in the Assembly, while Congress sent 35 crorepatis. The now disbanded Bharatiya Janshakti Party of Uma Bharti and Samajwadi Party sent one crorepati each to the House.
The Top-10 richie rich list, however, is dominated by Congress. Its legislator from Vijayraghogarh seat, Sanjay Pathak, is the richest MLA with a total declared asset of Rs 34.17 crore. Party MLA from Depalpur Satyanarayan Patel, embroiled in a sex CD controversy, occupies the second slot with assets worth Rs 30 crore.
BJP MLA from Bhopal (Central) Dhruv Narayan Singh, dragged into a row after the murder of RTI activist Shehla Masood, is the third richest MLA in the state with a total declared asset of Rs 8.12 crore.
Interestingly, two sons of former chief ministers also figure in the Top-10 list. While leader of Opposition Ajay Singh is the fifth richest with assets worth Rs 7.08 crore as declared before Election Commission during the 2008 assembly elections, BJP MLA from Bhojpur, Surendra Patwa (former CM Sunderlal Patwa's son) is slotted eighth in the list with declared assets of Rs 6.69 crore.
Samajwadi MLA Meera Dipak Yadav from Niwari (Tikamgarh) and Silwani MLA, Devendra Patel who was elected on a Bhartiya Janshakti Party ticket in 2008 polls also figure in the crorepati list.
While majority in the Top-10 club are either graduates or post-graduates, two of them, Satyanarayan Patel of Congress is Class XII passout and Dhar MLA Bal Mukund Gautam is a graduate.
According to the report of the National Election Watch (NEW)-Association for Democratic Reforms, 40% of 220 members (whose affidavits were sampled) in the outgoing Madhya Pradesh assembly are crorepatis, including six women among them minister for school education Archana Chitnis.
The report based on affidavits submitted by legislators before Election Commission in the 2008 assembly polls shows that 87 of the 220 (40%) are crorepatis.
Also, 39 of 87 crorepati MLAs are graduates, while 27 are post-graduates. Two crorepati legislators, including BJP MLA from Deori seat Bhanu Rana and Congress MLA from Bahoriband seat Nishith Patel are doctorates. Five crorepati MLAs are school dropouts.
They include Congress MLA from Sumawali Adal Singh Kansana (Rs 1.03 crore of assets), BJP MLA from Chandla Ramdayal Ahirwal (Rs 1.06 crore of assets) and Congress MLA from Chachoura seat, Shivnarayan Meena (Rs 1.28 crore), claims the report.
Two other MLAs who dropped out of school after Class V, include Congress MLA from Jobat seat (Alirajpur) Suluchna Rawat (Rs 1.01 crore of assets) and BJP MLA from Rajpur seat, Devsingh Patel (Rs 1.17 crore of assets). This is what they declared to the EC in the last assembly polls.