The BJP has done it in abundance in Tripura — be it the number of seats or the number of candidates with serious criminal cases and the worth of assets, an analysis of the self-sworn affidavits of the newly-elected legislators showed on Sunday.
As many as 10 (29 per cent) out of 35 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs face criminal charges. Of these 10, eight face serious criminal cases such as attempt to murder or causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty, among other charges.
In comparison, one out of 16 MLAs of CPI-M (6 per cent) and one out of eight MLAs of Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (13 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases against them, an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) showed.
Overall, there has been a 100 per cent rise in the number of legislators with criminal cases as compared to 2013 assembly elections.
In 2013, six out of 60 MLAs (10 per cent) had declared criminal cases against them. In 2018, the percentage has risen to 20 per cent (12 out of 59 MLAs). Also, there were five out of 60 (8 per cent) MLAs with serious criminal charges against them in 2013, which has now risen to 10 MLAs out of 59 or 17 per cent.
In terms of wealth, 15 out of the 59 newly-elected MLAs are crorepaties (those with declared assets worth one crore rupees or more). In 2013, the number of crorepati (multi-millionaire) candidates was eight or 13 per cent.
Also, 13 of the 35 BJP MLAs (37 per cent), one out of 16 (6 per cent) from Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and one out of eight (13 per cent) MLAs from IPFT have declared assets valued more than one crore rupees.
The top three MLAs with highest assets are from the BJP. They are Biplab Kumar Ghosh, Pranajit Singha Roy (both have total assets worth more than Rs 5 crore) and Dilip Sarkar (assets worth more than Rs 4 crore).