New Delhi: At least 428 MLAs or nearly half of all the winners in recently concluded assembly elections -- in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, West Bengal and Puducherry -- are crorepatis, a survey by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said on Friday.
The survey included analysis of poll affidavits filed by as many as 812 elected MLAs, ADR said, while adding that the affidavits for some others could not be taken into account as they were 'badly scanned'.
Puducherry has the maximum 83 per cent of crorepati MLAs, followed by Tamil Nadu (76 per cent) and Assam (57 per cent). However, only 34 per cent of elected MLAs in West Bengal are crorepatis, while this percentage for Kerala is 44 per cent.
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In 2011, Assam had 39 per cent of crorepati MLAs, while Kerala had 25 per cent, Puducherry (63 per cent), Tamil Nadu (51 per cent) and West Bengal (15 per cent).
In Puducherry, 30 MLAs were analysed of which 25 are crorepatis, while in Tamil Nadu 223 MLAs were analysed, with 170 emerging as crorepatis this year.
Assam has 72 crorepatis out of 126 MLAs analysed, Kerala 61 crorepatis of 140 MLAs analysed and West Bengal has 100 crorepatis of 293 analysed, the survey by ADR added.
In Assam, Naren Sonowal of Asom Gana Parishad has total assets of over Rs 33.94 crore, while in Kerala Thomas Chandy of NCP has total assets of more than Rs 92.37 crore.
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In Puducherry, Ashok Anand of All India N.R. Congress has total assets of over Rs 124 crore and West Bengal Samir Chakraborty of AITC has Rs 40.59 crore of total assets.
Tamil Nadu, Vasanthakumar. H of INC has Rs 337 crore of total assets and Jayalalithaa has Rs 113 crore in total assets, the survey added.
A total of 186 MLAs have declared that they have never filed income tax returns (ITR). Kerala has the maximum percentage (60 per cent) of MLAs who have not filed income tax returns, followed by West Bengal (20 per cent). The survey further added that 49 MLAs have not even given their PAN details.
Puducherry has the highest average assets (Rs 13.45 crore) of MLAs followed by Tamil Nadu with average assets of Rs 8.21 crore and Kerala with average assets of Rs 2.82 crore.
Read: 62 percent MLAs face criminal cases in Kerala: report
The number of women MLAs is only 77 out of 812 analysed in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, West Bengal and Puducherry 2016 assembly elections.
On analysis based on age, the survey said that five MLAs are above 80 years of age, while 38 are aged 71 to 80 years, 187 (61 to 70 years), 278 (51 to 60 years), 212 (41 to 50 years), 87 (31 to 40 years) and 5 (25 to 30 years).
Analysis based on education showed that there are 19 MLAs with PhD degree. The maximum number of MLAs (10) with PhD are from West Bengal followed by Tamil Nadu with 5 MLAs. Apart from PhD, there are 480 or 59 per cent MLAs with graduate or above degrees, it said.
National Election Watch (NEW) groups in the five states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, West Bengal and Puducherry have analysed the affidavits of 812 MLAs elected in 2016 elections.
One out of every three newly-elected MLAs in West Bengal has a criminal case pending against him/her.
An analysis of their affidavits by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) shows out of the 294 seats in the House, 107 winning candidates have criminal cases.
In their poll affidavits, 93 of the elected politicians had admitted that there were serious charges against them. A study of their assets profile shows that 100 (34 per cent) newly-elected MLAs are crorepatis. Samir Chakraborty of Trinamool, elected from Taldangra, is the richest of them all having declared assets worth over Rs 40.5 crore.
Jangipur's newly-elected MLA Jakir Hossain's net worth is about Rs 22 crore while minister of the outgoing Assembly Javed Ahmed Khan, who has been reelected from Kasba, has assets worth Rs 17 crore. All three richest candidates are from Trinamool Congress which has won a second consecutive mandate. However, 20 cent newly-elected MLAs have, have not filed their income tax returns.
A look at their educational qualification shows that 49 of them never studied beyond secondary school while one of them is bare literate. The number of MLAs having PhD degree are 10. Prominent among them is Trinamool secretary-general Partha Chatterjee, who was the education minister in the last government. In 2015, he had completed doctorate in economics from North Bengal University.
