Of the 182 newly elected MLAs of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly, around 40 have criminal cases pending against them. This information has been given by ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’ (ADR) and ‘Gujarat Election Watch’ on the basis of analysis of their affidavits.
Out of these 40, 29 (16 percent out of the total 182) have serious cases registered against them like attempts to murder, rape etc. Of these 29, 20 are from the BJP, four from the Congress and two from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Apart from these, 1 is Independent and 1 is Samajwadi Party MLA.
A case of rape has been registered against BJP’s Jetha Bharwad.
In the Gujarat Legislative Assembly election results declared on December 8, the BJP has won the mandate to form the government here for the 7th time in a row. It got 156 seats while Congress won 17 and AAP five candidates.
According to the ADR, the BJP has 26 out of 156 MLAs (17 percent), the Congress nine out of 17 (53 percent), the AAP two out of five (40 percent), the Samajwadi Party two out of three (68 percent) and the Samajwadi Party The only MLA has declared criminal cases pending against him.
ADR works for electoral reforms and prepares reports after analyzing affidavits of all 182 newly elected MLAs.
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Its analysis states that there has been a decrease in the number of MLAs facing criminal cases as compared to 2017. In the previous assembly, 47 members were facing criminal cases.
At least three newly elected legislators have reported that they have cases registered against them for attempt to murder. These include Congress MLA from Vansda Anant Patel, Congress MLA from Patan Kirti Patel and BJP MLA from Una Kalubhai Rathore.
The analysis also reveals that the four winning candidates have declared cases related to crimes against women under section 354 (sexual harassment) or section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code.
Of these four, BJP’s Jetha Bharwad has a case of rape registered while Congress’s Jignesh Mevani, BJP’s Janak Talaviya and AAP’s Chaitar Vasava have been booked under section 354.
151 Crorepati: Out of 182 MLAs, a total of 151 MLAs are ‘crorepati’. This information has been revealed in a study conducted by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Gujarat Election Watch.
The number of ‘crorepati’ (wealths above one crore rupees) MLAs who won the 2017 elections was 141. This time 83 percent of the MLAs elected in the assembly are crorepatis.
The study found that 132 MLAs of the ruling BJP are crorepatis, followed by 14 of the Congress, three independents and one each of the Aam Aadmi Party and the Samajwadi Party.
Of these 151 ‘crorepati’ MLAs, 73 MLAs have assets of more than Rs 5 crore and 73 have assets between Rs 2 crore and Rs 5 crore.
The average asset of the winning candidate in Gujarat is now Rs 16.41 crore, almost double the 2017 figure of Rs 8.46 crore.
BJP’s Mansa MLA JS Patel is the richest MLA with assets worth Rs 661 crore, according to the study. After this, BJP’s MLA from Siddhpur Balwant Singh Rajput (Rs 372 crore) is in second place, while BJP’s Rajkot South MLA Ramesh Tilala (Rs 175 crore) is in third place.
According to the study conducted by ADR, 74 MLAs were re-elected and their assets increased by an average of Rs 2.61 crore, which is 40 percent more than in 2017.
ADR works for electoral reforms and prepares such reports after analyzing the self-affidavits of legislators. The study reveals that six MLAs elected this time are Ph. D.s, 19 MLAs are post-graduates, 24 are graduates, six are diploma holders, 86 MLAs have studied between class V to class 12, while seven MLAs have declared themselves ‘literate’. In terms of age, 2 MLAs are 29 years old while two are 75 years old.
