Elections 2014: 34% of newly-elected MPs have criminal cases against them

New Delhi: The number of parliamentarians with criminal cases has risen in the 16th Lok Sabha, with every third MP-elect facing criminal charges, an analysis of their election affidavits has shown. An analysis of 541 of the 543 winning candidates by National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) showed that 186 or 34 percent of the newly-elected members have disclosed criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits. [caption id=“attachment_1531237” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] In 2009, 30 percent of the Lok Sabha members had criminal cases registered against them. This has now gone up by four percent. According to a press release, a candidate with criminal cases had 13 percent chance of winning in the 2014 Lok Sabha election whereas it was five percent for an aspirant with a clean record. The release said the affidavits of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s winning candidate from Jamshedpur and the Nationalist Congress Party’s winning candidate from Satara could not be analysed due to “unclear/incomplete affidavits” uploaded on the Election Commission website at the time of preparing the report. The BJP won 282 seats in the Lok Sabha election, getting a majority on its own. The Congress won 44 seats. The release said that of the 186 new members with declared criminal cases, 112 (21 percent) declared “serious criminal cases”, including those related to murder, attempt to murder, causing communal disharmony, kidnapping, crimes against women etc. Party-wise, the largest 98 or 35 percent of the 281 winners from the BJP have in their affidavits declared criminal cases against themselves. Eight of the 44 winners (18 percent) from the Congress, six of the 37 winners (16 percent) from the AIADMK, 15 of the 18 winners (83 percent) from the Shiv Sena, and seven of the 34 winners (21 percent) of the Trinamool Congress also disclosed criminal cases against themselves. The analysis also showed a rise in the number of crorepatis (millionaires) in the Lok Sabha over the 2009 election. The release said that of the winners analysed, 442 (82 percent) were crorepatis and the number was 300 (58 percent) in 2009. The BJP has the highest number of crorepatis, the release said. A total of 237 (84 percent) of 281 winners analysed in BJP, 35 (80 percent) of 44 winners in Congress, 29 (78 percent) of 37 winners in AIADMK and 21 (62 percent) of 34 winners in Trinamool have declared assets worth over Rs.1 crore, it said. Of the candidates analysed, the average assets per winner was Rs.14.61 crore, whereas the average asset for each candidate was Rs.3.16 crore. In 2009, the average assets per winner of 521 winners analysed was Rs.5.35 crore, the release said. It said the average assets for 281 winning candidates of the BJP was Rs.11.59 crore while 44 Lok Sabha members of the Congress have average assets of Rs.16.71 crore. The release also said one of the newly elected members had declared himself to be illiterate. A total of 125 (23 percent) winners declared that they have an educational qualification till Class 12 or below while 405 (75 percent) declared having an educational qualification of a graduate or above. It said 202 (37 percent) of the winning MPs declared their age to be between 25 to 50 years, 298 (55 percent) declared their age to be between 51 and 70 and 41 (eight percent) declared their age to be above 71. The release said 61 (11 percent) of the newly elected members are women. In 2009, of 521 winners analysed, 57 were women. IANS