Mumbai: As many as 47 newly-elected members of the Gujarat Assembly have serious criminal cases including murder and rape pending against them as per their election affidavits. 141 MLAs are crorepatis, while 13 have not disclosed their source of income and 20 MLAs did not specify their income tax return details.
According to a study by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Political Research and Analysis Bureau (PRAB) 18 (18 per cent) out of 99 BJP MLAs and 25 (32 per cent) out of 77 Congress MLAs have declared criminal cases pending against them.
According to the study, in the 2012 Assembly there were 57 MLAs having criminal background or facing criminal cases. In this Assembly 33 MLAs are facing murder and rape charges. The study shows that the number of the MLAs having criminal cases pending against them has gone down.
Mahesh Vasava from Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) and Bhavesh Katara from Congress have pending cases of murder, while Jetha Bharwad from Shahera constituency is facing rape charges.
According to the assets declared by the MLAs,141 out of 182 are crorepatis. While 84 are from BJP, 54 from Congress, BTP 2 and NCP 1 have property worth more than Rs 1 crore.
BJP's Saurabh Yashvantbhai Patel from Botad is the richest MLA having assets of Rs 124 crore. He is the son-in-law of Ramnikbhai Ambani, elder brother of industrialist Dheerubhai Ambani.
