22 new MLAs facing criminal cases in HP

Eight legislators have serious criminal cases against them; 18 belong to BJP alone; assets of repeat MLAs grows manifold

of the newly elected 68 MLAs in the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha are facing criminal cases, higher than the previous assembly’s figure of 19.

Of these 22 MLAs, eight have serious criminal cases against them. Also, the assembly will have 52 crorepati MLAs this time. The last Vidhan Sabha had 44 crorepati legislators.

As per a report of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), two of the 21 Congress MLAs and 18 of the 44 BJP MLAs and a CPM MLA and one of the two independent MLAs have declared criminal cases against them in their affidavits.

Of these, one MLA from the Congress, six from the BJP and one from the CPM are facing serious criminal cases against them.

The average worth of assets of MLAs contesting in the 2017 elections is ₹8.88 crore. In 2012, the average worth of MLAs’ assets was ₹7.45 crore. The average worth of assets of MLAs of the Congress is ₹13.80 crore, ₹6.14 crore for the BJP while two independent MLAs have average assets worth ₹12.85 crore.

As many as 30 MLAs have been re-elected to the assembly. The average assets of re-elected MLAs in 2012 were worth ₹5.79 crore while the same is ₹10.39 crore this time.

Of the total, 21 MLAs have declared their educational qualification from Class 8 to Class 12 pass, while 47 (69%) are graduate or above. Twenty MLAs are aged between 25 and 50 while 46 have declared their age between 51 and 80 and one MLA is aged above 80. Of the 68 MLAs, only four (6%) are women. In 2012, the assembly had three women MLAs.