India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, shows a preponderance of wealth and crime as far as its elected representatives are concerned. An analysis of the newly-elected MLAs has found that nearly half of the members of the 403-member Legislative Assembly have criminal cases against them, and over two-thirds have assets of more than Rs 1 crore.
The report, prepared by the Association of Democratic Reforms on the basis of the analysis of the affidavits of the candidates, has found 47 per cent (189) of the MLAs in the new Assembly have criminal cases against them. The 2007 Assembly had 140 MLAs (or 35 per cent) with criminal cases. The 2012 Assembly has 98 MLAs with serious criminal charges, up from 78 in 2007.
The number of MLAs with assets of more than Rs 1 crore rose from 30.77 per cent (124 MLAs) in 2007 to 67 per cent (271 MLAs) in 2012. An average assets of an MLA in UP Assembly is over Rs 3 crore. Congress MLA from Suar constituency, Nawab Kazim Ali Khan, tops the list with assets worth Rs 56.89 crore, followed by Shah Alam of BSP from Mubarakpur constituency with assets worth Rs 54.44 crore. SP’s Ayodhya MLA, Tej Narayan, with assets worth Rs 66,000 is at the bottom of the list, followed by Ajay Kumar, Congress MLA from Tamkuhi Raj, having assets worth Rs 96,000.
Among the major political parties, BSP has the highest number of MLAs (78.8 per cent) having assets worth more than Rs 1 crore, followed by BJP (68.1 per cent) and Congress (64.3 per cent). Of the 80 BSP MLAs, 63 of them have assets worth more than Rs 1 crore. Of the 224 MLAs belonging to the SP, 140 (or 62.5 per cent) of them have assets above Rs 1 crore.
The SP has the highest number of elected members with criminal cases. Almost 50 per cent of the SP MLAs have criminal cases against them, while 25 per cent have serious cases registered against them.
Of the 47 BJP MLAs, more than 53 per cent (or 25 MLAs) have criminal cases against them. Of these, 14 MLAs have serious charges lodged against them.
About 46.4 per cent of Congress MLAs (or 13 MLAs) have criminal cases against them, and 25 per cent of them have serious criminal cases against them.
With 36.3 per cent of MLA’s with criminal charges, BSP has the lowest number of MLAs having criminal cases.
SP MLA from Bikapur, Mitra Sen, has the highest number of criminal cases lodged against him, with a tally of 36 cases, including 14 cases of murder. Sen is followed by Sushil Singh, an independent MLA from Sakaldiha, with 20 criminal cases, including 12 murder charges.
