44% MLAs across India have criminal cases against them, says election watchdog

Of the 4,001 MLAs across state Assemblies, 1,777, or 44%, of them have declared criminal cases against themselves, the Association for Democratic Reform said in a report on Saturday. ‘

The Bharatiya Janata Party has the highest number of MLAs with declared criminal cases at 479 (35% of total legislators) legislators, followed by the Congress at 334 (46%) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam at 99 (76%).

In terms of serious criminal cases, the BJP had the highest number of MLAs at 337 (25% of total legislators), followed by the Congress 194 (27%) and the Trinamool Congress at 77 (34%).

Association for Democratic Reforms defines serious crimes as non-bailable offences that attract a maximum punishment of five years and more. These are crimes related to assault, murder, kidnap and rape, as well as crimes against women and corruption cases.

Uttar Pradesh has the most number MLAs with declared criminal cases at 202 (50% of total legislators) in 2022, followed by Maharashtra at 175 (62%) in 2019 and Bihar at 161 (67%) in 2020.

In terms of wealth, there are three MLAs with declared assets totaling Rs 1,000 crores and above. These are DK Shivakumar from the Congress, KH Puttaswamy Gowda, an independent candidate, and Priyakrishna, who again belongs to the Congress.

Nirmal Kumar Dhara from the BJP has the lowest declared assets at Rs 1,700, followed by Makaranda Muduli, an idependent candidate, at Rs 15,000 and Narinder Pal Singh Sawna from the Aam Aadmi Party at Rs 18,370.

In terms of political parties, the Congress has the highest number of MLAs that have assets of more than Rs 100 at 33, followed by the BJP at 24 and Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party at eight.

Gender-wise, only 378, or 9%, MLAs are women. Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of women at 48 (12%) followed by West Bengal at 41 (14%) and Bihar 28 (12%). In 2018, all the 40 MLAs in Mizoram were men.