24 Newly Elected Chhattisgarh Law Makers Have Criminal Records: ADR

AN estimated 24 of the 90 MLAs elected to the 90 –Member Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly recently have criminal cases against them. They account for 27 per cent of the strength of the House compared to 27 per cent in the last assembly, says the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) in a statement. ADR says  13 of the 90 (just over 14 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves including  bribery, attempt to murder and death by negligence,. The comparative number for the 2013 Assembly was nine per cent.The Congress has 68 MLAs in the new House, including 19 with criminal records (28 per cent). Of these, 12 MLAs have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. Former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi headed Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J), has five MLAs, two of whom have criminal records. One of these two is accused of serious crimes. The BJP, which lost power after 15 years, has three MLAs out of 15 (20 per cent) with a record, but none of them are accused of serious crimes. ADR’s analysis has  revealed that 68 (76 per cent) of the incoming MLAs are ballooners  which is almost the same as the outgoing Assembly’s figure of 67.Forty-eight Congress MLAs (71 per cent), 14 from the BJP (93 per cent), all five MLAs of Jogi’s party and one of the BSP’s two MLAs fall in this bracket.“The average of assets per MLA in the Chhattisgarh 2018 Assembly elections is Rs 11.63 crore. In 2013, the average assets of 90 MLAs analysed was Rs 8.88 crore,” said the ADR report. The average assets are Rs 11.83 crore for the Congress, Rs 6.32 crore for the BJP, 28.68 crore for the Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J) and Rs 2.04 crore for the BSP.