Shimla: An in-depth profiling of winning legislators showed that 93 per cent or 63 of them are either ‘crorepati’ or 41 p c or 28 of them have criminal cases on them.
The analysis was done by Himachal Pradesh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) after analysing self-sworn affidavits of all 68 winning candidates in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections.
After declaration of result for 14th state legislative Assembly HPEW & ADR amylase affidavit of 40 wining Congress, 25 BJP and three Independent candidate. As far as their financial profile is concerned average MLAs owns assest worth Rs 13.26 Crore.
ADR going through their honest appraisal of wealth analysed that out of total 68 MLA as many as 63(93 per cent) are either crorepati or owns vast empire.
The entry of Millioner and billioners are increased with every Election ad ADR stated that during Himachal Pradesh assembly elections 2017, there were 52 (76%) crorepatis MLAs in the hill state.
If we analyse Party-wise crorepati winning candidates, 38 (95%) out of 40 belonged to INC, 22 (88%) out of 25 from BJP and 3 (100%) Independent winning candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore.
The average of assets per winning candidates state show improvement as it increased to Rs 13.26 Crores from Rs 8.88 Cr. of 2017.
The Party wise average assest of winning Congress MLA is Rs 14.25 Crores and BJP’s Rs 12.42 Crores and Independent have average assets worth Rs 7.09 Crores.
Among top three winning candidates with high assets BJP lead the electoral battle as Balbir Singh Verma elected from Chopal for fourth terms owns more than Rs 128 Cr ( 4,65,25,778 movable and 1,23,80,00,000 immovable).
Son of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, Vikramaditya owns 101 Crore plus assests (11,05,69,447 movable and 90,33,91,586 immovable) and R S Bali from Nagrota figure top third with Rs 92 Crore plus (14,90,27,042 movable and 77,46,00,000 immovable assest).
Low asset winning candidates are BJP’s Lokinder Kumar from Anni of Kulu district having only Rs 29 lakh, Congress’s Chandershekhar from Dharmpur (Mandi) Rs 45 lakh and BJP’s Dalip Thakur from Sarkaghat od Mandi district having Rs 66 lakh plus assests.
Among Winning candidates with high liabilities, 16 have declared liabilities of Rs one crore and above, as Congress’ Sudarshan Singh Babloo owns two Crore assest and having total liabilities of Rs 10 Crore followed by INC’s Ram Kumar of Doon (Solan) having average assest 73 crore plus and Rs 8 Cr plus liabilities. Ashish Butail of Palampur ( Kangra) owns 30 Cr plus assest with liabilities of Rs seven crore plus.
MLA, who declared highest income in ITR are RS Bali Rs Two Crore plus, Congress’s Bhawani Singh Pathania from Fatehpur (Kangra)and Ram Kumar with Rs one Crore plus each.
Assests and income of MLAs showing projectile growth.
The average assets of re-elected MLAs in 2017 was Rs 12.76 crore.
The average assets of re-elected MLAs in 2022 is Rs 16.62 crores. Interestingly when state is bearing with whooping burden on state exchequer average assests of relected MLAs going like anything.
ADR found that average growth in assets of re-elected MLAs from 2017 to 2022 show increased in Rs 3.86 crores i.e. by 30 p c.
Number of MLAs bearing criminal profile in their affidavit increased to 28(41 pc) that of, 22(32 pc) in previous Election. MLAs, who had criminal cases against themselves 12 (18 pc ) winning candidates, have declared serious criminal cases against themselves, however in 2017 only eight (12%) MLAs had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
One each cases related to Murder under Sec 302 of IPC and cases related to crimes against women. 23 (58 pc) out of 40 winning candidates from INC and 5 (20 pc) out of 25 winning candidates from BJP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits. Nine (23 p c) from INC and 3(12 p c ) from BJP have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
Education profile 16 (24 p c) winning candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between 10th pass & 12th pass, while 52 (76 p c) winning candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate and above.
Age profile of winning candidates: 29 (43 pc) winning candidates have declared their age to be between 25 and 50 years while 38 (56 pc winning candidates have declared their age to be between 51 and 80 years and 1 winner candidate has declared his age 82 years.
Gender of winning candidates: Out of 68 winning candidates analysed, Only 1 winner candidate is a woman. In 2017, out of 68 MLAs, 4 (six pc) MLAs were women.
