Presidential Election 2017: Majority electorate to vote for polls are crorepatis, says ADR report

New Delhi: A majority of the MPs and MLAs who will vote in next week’s presidential polls are crorepatis, accounting for 75 percent of the total votes, says a report. As many as 3,460 members of parliament and members of legislative assemblies have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore. Based on the number of votes, these crorepati MPs and MLAs are entitled to cast a total of 75 percent, or 8,18,703 out of 10,91,472 votes analysed are of members who are crorepatis, a report by think-tank Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said on Friday. [caption id=“attachment_3814727” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] The findings are based on an analysis of election affidavits by ADR and National Election Watch (NEW). They analysed 4,852 out of 4,896 affidavits submitted by the individuals concerned at the time of their elections. This includes 774 of 776 affidavits of MPs and 4,078 of 4,120 MLAs. The presidential polls will be held on 17 July and the electoral college is made up of MPs and MLAs. The total votes of the members, whose affidavits have been analysed, is 10,91,472. The value of one MP’s vote is 708 while that of an MLA depends on the size of the respective state assemblies as well as the population in that particular state. As many as 3,460 MPs and MLAs or 71 percent of the total members whose affidavits were analysed are crorepatis. These include 445 Lok Sabha and 194 Rajya Sabha MPs as well as 2,721 MLAs. Out of the total electorate, as many as 1,581 MPs and MLAs accounting for 33 percent have criminal cases against them, the analysis of their affidavits by the ADR and the NEW showed. The total number of votes available to such MPs and MLAs is 3,67,393 votes or 34 percent of the total votes. “184 (34 percent) out of 543 Lok Sabha MPs, 44 (19 percent) out of 231 Rajya Sabha MPs and 1,353 (33 percent) out of 4,078 MLAs analysed from all states have declared criminal cases against themselves,” the ADR said in a report. Among them, a total of 993 members have serious criminal cases against them. These include 117 Lok Sabha MPs, 16 Rajya Sabha MPs and 860 (21 per cent) MLAs. “Among the state assemblies, based on the number of MLAs who have declared criminal cases against themselves, the maximum number of votes are from Uttar Pradesh which has 29,744 out of 83,616 votes analysed, of the members who have declared criminal cases against themselves,” the report said. According to the analysis, there are 65 women MPs from the Lok Sabha making up for 12 percent of the total votes while the number is 23 in the Rajya Sabha. The latter account for 10 percent of the votes. All state/ union territories assemblies combined have 51,383 (9 percent) votes, out of which 363 women members account for 5,43,480 votes. Among state assemblies, Uttar Pradesh has the maximum number of women votes (8,320), followed by West Bengal (6,191) and Madhya Pradesh (4,192), the report added.