With assets worth over Rs 123 crores, richest MLA is Saurabh Yashvantbhai Dalal Patel of BJP while Dalit youth leader and activist Jignesh Mevani is the poorest MLA with assets worth Rs 10 lakh.
Caravan News
AHMEDABAD — In the newly-elected Gujarat Assembly, every fourth Member has criminal cases pending in courts against them. More than 75% MLAs in the 182-member House are crorepatis. Results of the Assembly elections were announced on Monday.
As per an analysis of the Gujarat Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), 47 (26%) out of 182 MLAs have declared (in election affidavits) criminal cases against themselves – 33 of them have serious criminal cases including cases related to murder, attempt to murder and robbery etc. One MLA is facing even rape charges.
Party-wise, 18 (18%) out of 99 MLAs from BJP and 25 (32%) out of 77 MLAs from Congress have criminal cases.
Crorepati MLAs
Out of the 182 newly-elected MLAs in Gujarat, 141 (77%) are crorepatis. The number has gone up from 134 (74%) in the 2012 Assembly.
While the ruling BJP has 84 crorepati MLAs, that is 85% of its total strength of 99 MLAs, Congress has 54 (70%) crorepati out of its 77 MLAs.
The average assets per MLA for 99 BJP MLAs analysed is Rs 10.64 crores while this average for Congress is Rs 5.85 crores.
The richest MLA in the new Assembly is Saurabh Yashvantbhai Dalal Patel of BJP. He has declared assets worth over Rs 123 crores.
With assets worth Rs 10 lakh, Dalit youth leader and activist Jignesh Mevani is the poorest MLA. With support of Congress, he had fought the elections as an Independent candidate.