New Delhi-Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) & National Election Watch (NEW) has analyzed the self-sworn affidavits of current MLAs in State Assemblies and Union Territories across the nation. This data has been extracted from affidavits filed by the MLAs before contesting their last elections. A total of 4092 MLAs out of 4123 have been analyzed across 28 State Assemblies and 3 Union Territories. The affidavits of 24 MLAs have not been analyzed as their affidavits were badly scanned or not readable. There are currently 7 vacant seats in the state assemblies.
Criminal Background
Sitting MLAs with Criminal Cases: Out of the 4092 MLAs analysed from state assemblies, 1861 (45%) MLAs have declared criminal cases against themselves.
Sitting MLAs with Serious Criminal Cases: 1205 (29%) MLAs from State assemblies have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, crimes against women etc.
State with Highest Percentage of Sitting MLAs with Criminal Cases: 138 (79%) out of 174 MLAs from Andhra Pradesh, 93 (69%) out of 134 MLAs from Kerala, 82 (69%) out of 119 MLAs from Telangana, 158 (66%) out of 241 MLAs from Bihar, 187(65%) out of 286 MLAs from Maharashtra and 132 (59%) out of 224 MLAs from Tamil Nadu have declared criminal cases against themselves in their self-sworn affidavits.
State with Highest Percentage of Sitting MLAs with Serious Criminal Cases: 98 (56%) out of 174 MLAs from Andhra Pradesh, 59 (50%) out of 119 MLAs from Telangana, 119 (49%) out of 241 MLAs from Bihar, 66 (45%) out of 147 MLAs from Odisha, 36(45%) out of 80 MLAs from Jharkhand and 116 (41%) out of 286 MLAs from Maharashtra have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their self-sworn affidavits.
Party wise Sitting MLAs with Criminal Cases: 638(39%) out of 1653 MLAs from BJP, 339(52%) out of 646 MLAs from INC, 115 (86%) out of 134 MLAs from TDP, 98(74%) out of 132 MLAs from DMK, 95(41%) out of 230 MLAs from AITC, 69(56%) out of 123 MLAs from AAP and 68 (62%) out of 110 MLAs from SP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
Party wise Sitting MLAs with Serious Criminal Cases: 436(26%) out of 1653 MLAs from BJP, 194(30%) out of 646 MLAs from INC, 82 (61%) out of 134 MLAs from TDP, 42(32%) out of 132 MLAs from DMK, 78(34%) out of 230 MLAs from AITC, 35(28%) out of 123 MLAs from AAP and 48 (44%) out of 110 MLAs from SP have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
MLAs with cases related to murder: 54 MLAs have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section-302).
MLAs with cases related to Attempt to Murder: 226 MLAs have declared cases of attempt to murder (IPC Section-307 and BNS Section-109).
MLAs with cases related to Crimes against Women: 127 MLAs have declared cases related to crimes against women. Out of 127 MLAs, 13 MLAs have declared cases related to rape (IPC Section-376) and Whoever commits rape repeatedly on the same woman, shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than ten years, but may extend to imprisonment (IPC Section-376(2)(n)).
Financial Background
Average Assets of MLAs: The average of assets per MLA from state assemblies is Rs 17.92 Crores.
Average Assets of MLAs with declared criminal cases from State Assemblies Vs Average Assets of MLAs with no Criminal Cases: The average assets of MLAs with declared criminal cases is Rs 20.97 Crores. As compared to this, the average assets of MLAs with no criminal cases is Rs 15.38 Crores.
Billionaire MLAs: Out of the 4092 MLAs analysed from State Assemblies, 119 (3%) are Billionaires.
State with Highest Percentage of Billionaire MLAs: 27(16%) out of 174 MLAs from Andhra Pradesh, 31 (14%) out of 223 MLAs from Karnataka, 18 (6%) out of 286 MLAs from Maharashtra, 7(6%) out of 119 MLAs from Telangana, 5(6%) out of 90 MLAs from Haryana, 3(5%) out of 59 MLAs from Arunachal Pradesh and 3(4%) out of 70 MLAs from Delhi have declared assets worth more than Rs. 100 crores.
Analysis Based on State Wise Total Assets and Average Assets of Sitting MLAs
State with Highest Total Assets of MLAs: The total assets for 223 MLAs analysed from Karnataka is Rs 14,179 crores, for 286 MLAs analysed from Maharashtra it is Rs 12,424 crores and 174 MLAs analysed from Andhra Pradesh have total assets worth Rs.11,323 Crores.
State with Lowest Total Assets of MLAs: The total assets for 60 MLAs analysed from Tripura is Rs 90 crores, for 59 MLAs analysed from Manipur it is Rs 222 crores and 30 MLAs from Puducherry have total assets worth Rs 297 crores.
State with Highest Average Assets of MLAs: The state with the highest average assets per MLA is Andhra Pradesh (174 MLAs) with average assets of Rs 65.07 crores, followed by Karnataka (223 MLAs) with average assets of Rs 63.58 crores and Maharashtra (286 MLAs) with average assets of Rs 43.44 crores.
State with Lowest Average Assets of MLAs: The state with the lowest average assets of MLAs is Tripura (60 MLAs) with average assets of Rs 1.51 crores, followed by West Bengal (293 MLAs) with average assets of Rs 2.80 crores and Kerala (134 MLAs) with average assets of Rs 3.13 crores.
Analysis Based on Party Wise Total Assets and Average Assets of Sitting MLAs
Total assets of sitting MLAs: The total assets of 4092 sitting MLAs are Rs. 73,348 Crores. This is more than the Rs. 72,000 Crores combined annual budget (2023-24) of the states of Nagaland (Rs. 23,086 Crores), Tripura (Rs. 26,892 Crores) and Meghalaya (Rs 22,022 Crores).
Party wise total assets of sitting MLAs: The total assets for 1653 BJP MLAs analysed is Rs. 26,270 Crores, for 646 INC MLAs analysed is Rs 17,357 Crores, for 134 TDP MLAs analysed is Rs 9,108 Crores, for 64 Independent MLAs analysed is Rs 2,388 Crores, for 59 Shiv Sena MLAs analysed is Rs 1,758 Crores and 132 DMK MLAs have total assets worth Rs.1,675 Crores.
The total assets for 1653 BJP MLAs analysed is Rs. 26,270 Crores, which is more than the individual annual budgets (2023-24) of Sikkim, Nagaland and Meghalaya.
Party-wise average assets: Among major parties, the average assets per MLA for 1653 BJP MLAs analysed is Rs. 15.89 Crores, for 646 INC MLAs analysed is Rs 26.86 Crores, for 134 TDP MLAs analysed is Rs 67.97 Crores, for 59 Shiv Sena MLAs analysed is Rs 29.81 Crores, for 123 AAP MLAs analysed is Rs 7.33 Crores and 230 AITC MLAs have average assets worth Rs.3.73 Crores.