Over 350 MPs and MLAs out of nearly 2,500 lawmakers from 2019 to 2021 have criminal charges framed against them in courts with the BJP (83) topping the list. Of this, 24 MPs and 111 MLAs have cases pending in courts with charges being framed at least ten years ago, a new study has said.

Altogether, 363 lawmakers — 67 MPs and 296 MLAs — have charges framed against them, the analysis by private election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms ((ADR) showed after analysing election affidavits of 2,495 lawmakers — 542 Lok Sabha MPs and 1,953 MLAs.

The average number of years that criminal cases against MPs have been pending is seven years while that of MLAs is six years.

The analysis has brought out interesting facts — there are at least nine MLAs or MPs whose cases were registered more than 25 years ago.

Among these is the case of Ram Narayan Mandal, a BJP MLA in Bihar who has the longest case at 31 years. While the case was filed in 1989, the court framed charges only in October 2010 relating to unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapons, assault and conspiracy.

Manoranjan Byapari, a Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA in West Bengal has a 30-year-old case of 1991, in which the court framed charges only in December 2019. Mithilesh Kumar Thakur of JMM and Soumya Ranjana Patnaik have 29-year-old cases pending against them.

According to the ADR report, Congress follows BJP with 47 MLAs and MPs against whom charges have been framed. TMC has 25 such lawmakers while BJD, YSR Congress and CPI-M have 22 each. DMK (20), RJD (14) and AAP and Shiv Sena (12 each) also have lawmakers with charges framed in double digits.

Among the elections, 2019 Lok Sabha polls have the highest number of lawmakers at 67, followed by Bihar Assembly Election 2020 with 54 MLAs and Kerala Assembly Election 2021 with 42 MLAs who have declared criminal cases where the charges have been framed.

If one takes the data of MPs state-wise, Uttar Pradesh had 14 MPs with charges framed against them followed by Bihar (9), Tamil Nadu (8), Kerala (7) and Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (4 each).

The data on MLAs showed that Bihar had the highest number of 54 MLAs who have charges framed against them followed by Kerala (42), Maharashtra (41) and Odisha (30).

Among the ministers against whom charges have been framed, four are union ministers while 35 are ministers in state governments.