Call it a co-incidence or winning skills, all the 12 MLAs who had criminal cases pending against them have won from Haryana where elections to State Assembly were held recently.

The interesting information came to light when Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) released its report on January 10, 2020. Maximum margin of victory was in case of former chief minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda of Indian National Congress who won from Garhi Sampla Kiloi constituency with  a victory margin of 39.25 per cent. Among these 12 MLAs, three won with more than 20 per cent margin of victory.

The information about legislators with criminal cases are on the basis of their own affidavits filed before contesting election as is mandatory. Another highlight of the analysis by ADR is that on an average the vote share of winning MLAs went up.  On an average, the MLAs of the Haryana Assembly Elections, 2019 won by an average of 43.55 per cent of total votes polled. In the 2014 elections the elected MLAs had won by an average of 39.84 per cent  per cent of total votes polled.

As many as 19(21 per cent) MLAs won with 50 per cent and above of the total votes polled in their constituency. As many as 71(79 per cent) MLAs won with less than 50 per cent of the total votes polled in their constituency. Significantly, three (25 per cent) out of 12 MLAs analysed with declared criminal cases have won with a vote share of 50 per cent and above.  

As many as 19(23 per cent) out of 84 crorepati MLAs analysed have won with a vote share of 50 per cent and above. Three MLAs have won with a margin of victory of less than 1000 votes. Four MLAs have won with more than 30 per cent of margin of victory. There are 11 MLAs with a clean background who have won against a runner up with declared criminal cases. Out of these 11 MLAs, only 2 MLAs have won with more than 10 per cent the margin of victory. 

Two out of 84 crorepati MLAs have won against a non-crorepati runner up. Among these 2 MLAs, 1 MLA has won with more than 20 per cent margin of victory. There are 3 non-crorepati MLAs who have won against crorepati runners up. Two of them have won with more than 10 per cent margin of victory.

As for as performance of women MLAs is concerned, among the 90 MLAs, 9 women have been analysed. All of them won with 35 per cent and above of vote share in their constituencies.  Among the women MLAs, Kiran Chaudhary (INC) from Tosham Constituency has won with the highest vote share, that is 49.72  per cent in her constituency and 12.35 per cent of margin of victory.

About the performance of re-elected MLAs, out of total 29 re-elected MLAs 6 have won with more than 50 per cent of vote share. The 12 re-elected MLAs have won with less than 10 per cent of margin of victory whereas 6 have won with more than 20 per cent of the margin of victory.

Jaskirat Singh, Trustee and State Coordinator, Haryana Election Watch told that NOTA button instated by the ECI in 2013 gave the voters an option of rejecting all the candidates in their constituency. Out of 1,25,20,177 votes polled in Haryana Assembly, 2019, 65,672 (0.52 per cent) were polled for NOTA. Out of 1,24,26,968 votes polled in Haryana Assembly, 2014, 53,613 (0.43 per cent) were polled for NOTA.