‘87% of the outgoing MLAs millionaires’
Around 58% or 158 of the MLAs in 13th state Assembly, whose term ends of November 9, had criminal cases registered against them. Of these, 110 MLAs are booked in
Around 58% or 158 of the MLAs in 13th state Assembly, whose term ends of November 9, had criminal cases registered against them. Of these, 110 MLAs are booked in serious cases, such as murder, attempted murder, rape, kidnapping, attracting punishment of more than five years. Around 87% of the MLAs were millionaires, with average assets of ₹10.62crore, the richest among them being Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Malabar Hill MLA Mangal Prabhat Lodha (assets worth ₹199 crore).
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) recently released the analysis of affidavits filed by candidates during the 2014 state Assembly elections.
According to the report card of 275 of the 288 MLAs, three of them were facing charges of murder and 14 were booked in cases related to attempted murder.
The Congress appeared to be the cleaner party with 35% MLAs facing such criminal cases. Around 62% and 75% of BJP and Shiv Sena MLAs, respectively, were facing criminal cases.
After Lodha, Samajwadi Party’s (SP) state unit chief, Abu Asim Azmi, was the second richest with total assets worth ₹156.11 crore, followed by BJP’s Vadgaon Sheri MLA, Jagdish Mulik, with a declaration of assets worth ₹104.88 crore. Three BJP MLAs — Prabhadas Bhilavekar, Dilip Kamble and Krishna Gajabe — ranked the lowest with assets ranging between ₹11.73 lakh and ₹18.19 lakh.
Lodha, Dilip Sopal (Nationalist Congress Party) and Prashant Thakur (BJP) declared the highest income in their income tax returns (ITR). While Lodha’s income according to his ITR in 2012-13 was ₹33.24 crore, that of the other two was ₹9.85 crore and ₹5.41 crore respectively.
BJP MLAs were richer among the millionaires with the average assets of ₹11.45 crore against the overall average of ₹10.62 crore. The average assets of NCP MLAs were worth ₹10.56 crore, followed by Congress at ₹8.36 crore and Shiv Sena at ₹6.83 crore, the report stated.