Analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms of affidavits submitted by MPs shows that charges include those of murder and dacoity

A total of 12 out of 23 Members of Parliament re-elected from 2004 to 2019 have criminal cases against them, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch. Nine of the 12 face serious charges such as murder, attempt to murder and dacoity.

The report was prepared after an analysis of the self-sworn affidavits of 23 re-elected MPs from 2004 to 2019.

Of the 17 BJP MPs who were re-elected, seven (41%) had criminal cases against them and all three Congress MPs re-elected faced criminal cases. The lone re-elected MP from the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) had a criminal case against him as did the MP from Shiv Sena.

Four of the re-elected MPs had declared their educational qualifications to be between 10th and 12th standard while 18 have declared having an educational qualification of graduation or above and one re-elected MP is a diploma holder.

Nineteen of these re-elected MPs are aged between 51 to 80 years and four between 40 to 50 years. Of the 23 re-elected MPs, only 3 are women.

The average assets of these MPs was ₹1.52 crore in 2004 and it rose to ₹3.46 crore in 2009, ₹9.85 crore in 2014 and ₹17.51 crore in 2019.

The average asset growth for these 23 re-elected MPs, between the Lok Sabha election of 2004 to 2019 is ₹15.98 crore, the report said.