A total of 118 MLAs, constituting 41% of the state’s newly elected legislative assembly members, face serious criminal charges. Among them, 3 are accused of murder, and 11 are charged with attempted murder, with attempt to murder cases, a report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the Maharashtra Election Watch has revealed.
The not-for-profit organisations could not find “clear and complete affidavits of two winning candidates (male) on the Election Commission of India website” for an analysis, it said.
Average assets (movable and immovable) of each MLA this time are nearly two times — Rs 43.42 crore — those of their counterparts in 2019. The number of crorepatis has reached 97%, which is the highest so far, and out of these MLAs, 163 have declared wealth worth more than Rs 10 crore, the report said.
The analysis found that maximum newly elected legislators with serious criminal cases are from Mahayuti. BJP leads the chart with 53 (40%) of the 132 MLAs. Shiv Sena with 27 (47%) of the 57 winners has come second, followed by NCP with 12 (29%) of the 41 MLAs. In the Maha Vikas Aghadi, eight MLAs (40%) of 20 from Shiv Sena (UBT), six (38%) of 16 from Congress, four (50%) of eight from NCP(SP), and two (100%) of two from Samajwadi Party have declared serious criminal cases against them in their poll affidavits.
In comparision, the report pointed out, 113 of the 285 winning candidates had declared serious crimes against them in 2019 assembly poll.
Average assets of the winning candidates are also higher this time, with each of the 132 BJP MLAs owning wealth worth Rs 59.68 crore. While the estimate is Rs 30.61 crore for the 57 legislators from Shiv Sena, 41 NCP winners have average assets worth Rs 22.32 crore.
In the Maha Vikas Aghadi, 20 Shiv Sena (UBT) MLAs have average assets worth Rs 10.43 crore each and 16 Congress legislators own wealth worth Rs 43.91 crore. The average estimate is Rs 51.31 crore for eight NCP(SP) MLAs while it Rs 158.52 crore for two Samajwadi Party winners. In contrast, the average assets per MLA in 2019 was Rs 22.42 crore.
The statistics pointed out that 24 of the 286 winning candidates in the 2024 election are aged between 25 and 40. While 187 MLAs are in the 41-60 age bracket, 75 legislators have declared their age between 61 and 80, the report added.
