62 new corporators in Panvel, Bhiwandi and Malegaon face criminal charges

Mumbai city news: Of them, 42 face grave charges, including kidnapping, murder and rape.

As many as 62 corporators who emerged victorious in the recently held civic polls at Panvel, Bhiwandi-Nizampur and Malegaon have declared criminal cases against them in their affidavits, a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) reveals.

BJP workers celebrate party's victory at Panvel on Friday. (HT)

Of them, 42 face grave charges, including kidnapping, murder and rape.

The ADR has released the report after analysing affidavits of 245 of the 252 winners in the three civic elections.

The rest of the affidavits could not be analysed as they were not available or uploaded at the time of preparing the report.

The Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation has the maximum number of corporators (27) with criminal background, followed by Malegaon (18) and Panvel (17).

According to the report, 119 of the 245 winners across the three corporations are also crorepatis and 52 of them are from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

While the average asset per winner is Rs3.61 crore, just 24 newly elected corporators have declared assets below Rs3 lakh.

The elections to the three corporations were held on Wednesday. The results were announced on Friday.

While the BJP recorded a landslide in Panvel, the Congress bagged the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation. The BJP won 51 of the 78 seats in Pavel.

In Bhiwandi-Nizampur, the Congress won the Bhiwandi civic polls. It crossed the magic figure of 45, winning 47 seats to form the majority. The BJPwas the second largest party with 19 seats there.

In Malegaon, however, no party received a clear majority. The Congress emerged the single largest party and won 28 of the 84 seats, followed by the the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with 20.

The report further reveals that 18 of the 245 winners are illiterate. Only 3% of the total corporators are graduates. Sharad Kumar, Maharashtra state co-ordinator for ADR, said it had almost become a routine to elect people with criminal charges.

“With fewer people voting in local elections, the chances of criminals getting elected to power are increasing. The only silver lining here is that the number of people with serious criminal charges is reducing,” Kumar said.