Sixty two percent (49 out of 79) of sitting MLAs in the outgoing Jharkhand assembly have declared criminal cases against themselves, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). Out of 79, as many as 38 or 48 percent of these MLAs have declared serious criminal cases, the democracy watchdog added in a press release.

The ADR analysed affidavits of 79 sitting MLAs of 81 members of the assembly. The affidavits of two MLAs were not analysed due to lack of properly scanned and complete documents.

Jharkhand will go for five-phased assembly poll from November 30 to December 20. The counting of votes will be held on December 23.

The release said that three MLAs have declared cases related to the murder (Section 302) and 10 MLAs have declared cases related to attempt to murder (Section 307 of the IPC).

It said that 21 (58 percent) out of 36 MLAs from BJP, 11 (61 percent) out of 18 MLAs from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), 5 (63 percent) out of 8 MLAs from the Congress and 5 (63 percent) out of 8 MLAs from JVM (P) have declared criminal cases against them in their affidavits.

In terms of serious criminal cases, 15 (42 percent) out of 36 MLAs from BJP, 10 (56 percent) out of 18 MLAs from JMM, two (25 percent) out of 8 MLAs from Congress and 5 (63 percent) out of 8 MLAs from JVM(P) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Crorepati MLAs

The ADR release also said that of 79 sitting MLAs analysed, 41 or 52 percent are crorepati.

Twenty-one or 58 percent out of 36 MLAs from BJP are crorepati, while nine or 50 percent out of 18 MLAs from JMM, five or 63 percent out of eight MLAs from Congress and three out of eight MLAs from JVM(P) have declared assets worth more than a crore.

The average assets per sitting MLA is estimated to be worth Rs 1.84 crore, as per the ADR release.

The average assets per MLA for 36 BJP legislators analysed stands at Rs 2.09 crore. For 18 JMM MLAs, it comes to Rs 1.26 crore, while the Congress Party's eight MLAs have an average assets of Rs 3.42 crore. JVM (P)'s eight MLAs have average assets of Rs 1.29 crores.

BJP MLA Manish Jaiswal from the Hazaribagh assembly constituency has declared the highest assets totalling over Rs 18 crore. The Congress MLA Devendra Kumar Singh from the Palamu constituency and Pakur MLA Alamgir Alam have the second and third highest assets at over Rs 10 crore and Rs 60 crore, respectively.

JMM MLA Shashibhushan Samad from the scheduled tribe reserve constituency of Chakradharpur has declared the lowest assets of over Rs 2 lakh.