In all 102 MLAs i.e. 35 per cent (out of 293 analysed) in the new West Bengal Assembly have pending criminal cases as per their own declarations. Seventy-five MLAs out of these 102 analysed have declared serious IPC charges like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and theft against them.
All major parties have MLAs with pending criminal cases. The Trinamool Congress has 69 MLAs out of 183 analysed (38 per cent), the Congress has 17 out of 42 (41 per cent) and CPI(M) has seven out of 40 (18 per cent) MLAs analysed with pending criminal cases.
The affidavit of Sabyasachi Dutta of Trinamool Congress who has won from Rajarhat New Town is still not available on the CEO’s website. Dutta’s credentials have not been analysed.
The analysis has been done by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW), a nationwide campaign comprising more than 1200 NGOs and other citizen-led organisations, who have been working on electoral reforms, improving democracy and governance in India.
Out of 293 MLAs in the new Assembly, 47 (16 per cent) are crorepatis in terms of movable and immovable assets. Trinamool Congress has the most with 20 per cent crorepati MLAs, followed by 17 per cent crorepati MLAs from the Congress. Compared to the 2006 Assembly Elections, out of 283 MLAs analysed, only seven (2 per cent) were crorepatis.
| Party | MLAs analysed | Crorepatis | %age of crorepatis | MLAs analysed | Crorepatis | % of crorepatis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 Assembly Election | 2006 Assembly Election | |||||
| AITC | 183 | 37 | 20% | 27 | 1 | 4% |
| INC | 42 | 7 | 17% | 20 | 3 | 15% |
| CPI(M) | 40 | 0 | 0% | 174 | 2 | 1% |
| AIFB | 11 | 1 | 9% | 21 | 0 | 0% |
| Others | 17 | 2 | 12% | 41 | 1 | 2% |
| Total | 293 | 47 | 16% | 283 | 7 | 2% |
The Top 10 richest MLAs are all from the Trinamool-Congress combine:
- Swapan Kanti Ghosh (Suri Rs 12.01 cr)
- Nure Alam Chowdhury (Murarai, Rs 9.23 cr)
- Kasturi Das (Maheshtala, Rs 7.18 cr)
- Iqbal Ahmed (Khanakul, Rs 7.09 cr)
- Amit Kumar Mitra (Khardaha, Rs 7.08 cr)
- Haider Aziz Safwi (Uluberia, Rs 5.34 cr)
- Abhijit Mukherjee (Nalhati, Rs 4.93 cr)
- Sovan Chatterjee (Behala Purba, Rs 4.79 cr)
- Emani Biswas (Suti, Rs 4.11 cr)
- Manis Gupta (Jadavpur, Rs 3.94 cr)
There are only five MLAs with assets of less than Rs 1 lakh. They are Gouranga Chatterjee (Pandabeswar, CPI-M, Rs 36,677), Nabin Chandra Bag (Khandaghosh, CPI-M, Rs 54,015), Pundarikakshya Saha (Nabadwip, Trinamool, Rs 56,905), and Asima Patra (Dhanekhali-SC, Trinamool, Rs 57,000).
The average asset of a MLA from Trinamool Congress is Rs 86 lakh, from Congress it is Rs 62 lakh, while from Forward Bloc it is Rs 43 lakh.
Out of 283 MLAs analysed in the West Bengal 2006 Assembly elections, 45 (16 per cent) had pending criminal cases against them. Out these of 45 MLAs, 30 (11 per cent) have serious pending criminal cases against them. The table below gives the comparison of MLAs with pending criminal cases in 2006 Assembly and 2011 Assembly party-wise.
| Party | MLAs analysed | MLAs with pending criminal cases | % of MLAs with pending criminal cases | MLAs with serious pending criminal cases | % of MLAs with serious pending criminal cases |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AITC | 183 | 69 | 38% | 51 | 28% |
| INC | 42 | 17 | 41% | 11 | 26% |
| CPI(M) | 40 | 7 | 18% | 4 | 10% |
| AIFB | 11 | 4 | 36% | 4 | 36% |
| RSP | 7 | 1 | 14% | 1 | 14% |
| GJM | 4 | 3 | 75% | 3 | 75% |
| IND | 1 | 1 | 100% | 1 | 100% |
| Others | 5 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| Total | 293 | 102 | 35% | 75 | 26% |
| Party | MLAs analysed | MLAs with pending criminal cases | % of MLAs with pending criminal cases | MLAs with serious pending criminal cases | % of MLAs with serious pending criminal cases |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPI(M) | 174 | 20 | 11% | 15 | 9% |
| AITC | 27 | 8 | 30% | 4 | 15% |
| INC | 20 | 6 | 30% | 4 | 20% |
| AIFB | 21 | 2 | 10% | 1 | 5% |
| RSP | 19 | 3 | 16% | 2 | 11% |
| CPI | 7 | 1 | 14% | 1 | 14% |
| IND | 5 | 3 | 60% | 3 | 60% |
| Others | 4 | 2 | 50% | 0 | 0% |
| Total | 283 | 45 | 16% | 30 | 11% |
