Report says Karnataka Assembly has highest number of billionaires

Odisha doesn’t have a single billionaire MLA and Karnataka Assembly has the highest number of billionaires.

The fact was revealed in the report by the Association For Democratic Reforms (ADR). According to the report that was made public on Saturday, out of the 4,001 MLAs analysed from state Assemblies, 88 (two per cent) are billionaires.

Odisha doesn’t have a single billionaire MLA and Karnataka Assembly has the highest number of billionaires.

The fact was revealed in the report by the Association For Democratic Reforms (ADR). According to the report that was made public on Saturday, out of the 4,001 MLAs analysed from state Assemblies, 88 (two per cent) are billionaires.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik with his Rs 63-crore assets, both movable and immovable, remained the richest of all the MLAs in Odisha. He inherited most of the properties that included valuable land in Delhi. Independent MLA from Raygada, Makaranda Muduli, is one of the poorest MLA with assets worth Rs 15,000.

In terms of criminal background, the percentage of MLAs facing criminal charges compared to other states is also low in Odisha. Out of the 145 MLAs in Odisha, 64 legislators (44 per cent) have criminal cases against them. Out of the 64 MLAs facing criminal charges, 46 have serious criminal cases against them and out of those 46 MLAs, two MLAs have murder cases against them, while attempt to murder cases registered against 11 MLAs and 12 MLAs have atrocities against women cases registered against them. One MLA has rape charges against him.

On the other hand, the state with the highest percentage of MLAs facing criminal cases reported is Kerala (70 per cent), followed by Bihar (67 per cent), Delhi (63 per cent), Maharashtra (62 per cent), Telangana (61 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (60 per cent).

Similarly, the state with the highest percentage of MLAs facing serious criminal cases reported is Delhi. 37 (53 per cent) out of 70 MLAs from Delhi are facing serious criminal charges.

Similarly, 122 (50 per cent) out of 242 MLAs from Bihar, 114 (40 per cent) out of 284 MLAs from Maharashtra, 31 (39 per cent) out of 79 MLAs from Jharkhand, 46 (39 per cent) out of 118 MLAs from Telangana and 155 (38 per cent) out of 403 MLAs from Uttar Pradesh have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their self-sworn affidavits.