Chief Minister-elect, Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, caretaker Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu and Telugu actor Nandumuri Balakrishna (Mr. Naidu’s brother- in law) are the top three MLAs in the new Andhra Pradesh Assembly having the highest declared movable and immovable assets.
This was revealed in an analysis of the MLAs’ self-sworn affidavits (declared in the Assembly elections) by the Andhra Pradesh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Mr. Naidu (TDP, Kuppam constituency) tops with ₹ 668 cr, followed by Mr. Jagan (YSRCP, Pulivendula ), ₹510 cr and Mr. Balakrishna (TDP, Hindupur), ₹274 cr. Mr. Jagan with ₹38 crore and Mr. Naidu with ₹14 crore figure in the top three MLAs who have highest total income declared in income-tax returns. The third one is Meda Mallikarjuna Reddy ( YSRCP MLA from Rajampet), ₹ 16 crore.
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At the other end of the spectrum are the three “low asset MLAs”, Nagulapalli Dhanalakshmi, (YSRCP, Rampachodavaram), ₹6.75 lakh, Dola Sree Bala Veeranjaneyaswamy (TDP, Kondepi), ₹ 25 lakh and K. Adimulam, (YSRCP, Satyavedu) ₹ 25 lakh.
Indicating yet again that money power plays a major role in elections, the ADR analysis shows that 94 % of 163 of the 174 MLAs are crorepatis. One YSRCP MLA, Karanam Dharmasri of the Chodavaram constituency was not analysed as ADR could not get proper scanned affidavit on the Election Commission of India website.
140 (93 % ) from the YSRCP, 22 (96 % ) from TDP and one from Jana Sena have declared their assets are worth more than ₹one crore. The average of assets per MLA analysed in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly Elections is ₹ 27.87 crore.
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Phenomenal increase
Another interesting point the ADR analysis showed was the average assets of 55 re-elected MLAs fielded by various parties increased from ₹29.97 crore in 2014 to ₹ 47.99 crore in 2019 or about 60 % in five years.
Coming to criminal background, the ADR analysis of 174 MLAs shows that more than half of the 174 newly elected MLAs have criminal cases.
To be precise, 96 or 55 % of the 174 MLAs analysed have declared that they have criminal cases against themselves. Party wise break-up include 86(57%) out of 150 MLAs from YSRCP, 9 (39%) out of 23 MLAs from TDP, and one (100%) MLA from Jana Sena Party.
Of the 174, 55 or 32 % of the 175 newly elected MLAs have declared that they have serious criminal charges. Party-wise, 50 (33%) out of 150 MLAs are from YSRCP, 4(17%) out of 23 MLAs from TDP, and 1 (100%) MLA from JSP.
Crime against women
Interestingly, six MLAs have declared cases related to crime against women.
One YSRCP MLA, Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy has declared case related to murder , while ten MLAs have declared cases related to attempt to murder . Seven MLAs said in their affidavits that they have cases of kidnapping against them. Eight MLAs have declared convicted cases against them.