As many as 72 out of 90 MLAs in the newly-elected Chhattisgarh legislative assembly are crorepatis, four more as compared to the previous assembly while 17 of the new MLAs face criminal cases, with six having serious charges against them.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which won a landslide victory in the recently-held elections, tops this list with 43 crorepati MLAs, followed by the Congress.
Out of 90 seats, the BJP has won 54 and Congress 35.
A total of 72 newly-elected MLAs (80 percent of the House strength) are crorepatis.
The BJP tops the list with 43 (80 percent) of 54 MLAs each having declared assets valued at more than Rs 1 crore.
At 29, 83 percent of 35 MLAs of Congress are crorepatis, as per the analysis done by the Association for Democratic Reforms and the Chhattisgarh Election Watch.
The average of assets per winning candidate in the state assembly elections held this time is Rs 5.25 crore as compared to Rs 11.63 crore in the 2018 assembly polls.
With assets worth Rs 33.86 crore, BJP's first-time MLA Bhawan Bohra (Pandariya seat) tops the crorepati club, followed by the outgoing chief minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel (Patan constituency) with assets worth Rs 33.38 crore.
BJP's Amar Agrawal (Bilaspur seat) stands at a third position with assets valued over Rs 27 crore.
Congress MLA from Chandrapur, Ramkumar Yadav, and his BJP counterparts Ramkumar Toppo and Gomati Sai, the incumbent MP who contested the assembly elections, are at the bottom of the list of MLAs with the lowest assets.
Yadav has declared assets worth Rs 10 lakh, the lowest among all MLAs, Toppo Rs 13.12 lakh, and Sai Rs 15.47 lakh, as per the analysis.
The report also states that 33 out of 90 MLAs (37 percent) have declared their educational qualification as having passed class 5 to class 12. At 54, a maximum of 60 percent of the total MLAs hold graduate degrees or higher qualifications.
Two others hold diplomas while an MLA has declared himself as just "literate".
A total of 44 winning candidates (49 percent) have declared their age between 25 and 50 years while 46 others (51 percent) are between 51 and 80 years.
BJP's Domanlal Korsewada (75), elected from the Ahiwara (SC) seat is the oldest MLA in the newly-elected assembly while Congress' Bilaigarh (SC) legislator Kavita Pran Lahrey (30) is the youngest of all.
As many as 17 of the 90 MLAs in the newly elected Chhattisgarh assembly have declared criminal cases against themselves, with six facing serious charges like voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation.
The BJP swept the Chhattisgarh assembly polls, winning 54 seats. The Congress, which had won 68 seats in 2018 in the state, was reduced to 35 seats, while the Gondwana Gantantra Party managed to win in one constituency.
Late chief minister Ajit Jogi founded Janata Congress Chhattisgarh-Jogi, and Bahujan Samaj Party failed to open their accounts this time.
As per a report by non-profits Chhattisgarh Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms, of the 90 newly elected MLAs, 17 (19 percent) have declared criminal cases against themselves in their poll affidavits.
Of them, six (7 percent) MLAs have declared serious criminal cases against themselves, it said.
Twelve (22 percent) of BJP's 54 MLAs and five (14 percent) of Congress' 35 MLAs have declared criminal cases against themselves.
Similarly, the BJP has four (7 percent) MLAs and the Congress has two (6 percent) legislators who have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
As per the report, outgoing Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel (Patan seat), Devendra Yadav (Bhilai Nagar) and Atal Shrivastav (Kota) are among the Congress winners who face criminal cases.
Similarly, former ministers Rajesh Munat (Raipur City West) and Dayaldas Baghel (Navagarh), Shakuntala Singh Portey (Pratappur), Uddheshwari Paikra (Samri), OP Choudhary (Raigarh) Vijay Sharma (Kawardha seat), Vinayak Goyal (Chitrakot-ST) and Asharam Netam (Kanker-ST) are among the newly elected MLAs from BJP who face criminal cases as per the report.
In 2018, the report said, 24 (27 percent) of the 90 elected MLAs had declared criminal cases against themselves, with 13 (14 percent) facing serious charges.
