A third of all the MLAs elected through the recent elections have criminal charges filed against them, says an analysis done by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR). The firm collected and analysed data for all the 812 MLAs elected in the recently-concluded polls in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry.
State-wise figures show that Kerala has the highest number of MLAs (62%) with declared criminal record, while Assam has the lowest (11%). Further, the percentage of MLAs with criminal charges in Kerala has increased from 42% in 2011 to 62% in 2016.
The analysis shows that 39 per cent of all the MLAs do not hold any graduation degree. Further, 19 of the elected representatives are Doctorates. West Bengal Assembly leads with 10 MLAs with Doctorates, followed by Tamil Nadu with 5. In terms of percentage of Doctorates, Assam records the lowest with 0.079%.
Puducherry has the got the richest MLAs, with 83 per cent of the representatives having net worth more than Rs. one crore, followed by Tamil Nadu.
Though two of the five states — West Bengal and Tamil Nadu — are led by women Chief Ministers, women constitute only nine per cent of the total elected MLAs. West Bengal records the highest women's representation among the five states. Seventy seven of its 294 seats are held by women representatives. Kerala, despite being a State with a sex ratio tilted in favour of women, has the lowest percentage of women representatives.
