The country’s 4,001 sitting MLAs have total assets of Rs 54,545 crore, more than the combined annual budgets of Nagaland, Mizoram and Sikkim for 2023-24. This has been revealed in a report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW). They have extracted the data from affidavits filed by MLAs before contesting their last election.
The report said that out of 4,033 MLAs, affidavits of 4,001 have been analysed. It said that the average assets per MLA of 84 political parties and independent MLAs is Rs 13.63 crore. It further states that the total assets of the 4,001 sitting MLAs are Rs 54,545 crore. This amount is more than the combined annual budget of the three states Nagaland, Mizoram and Sikkim for 2023-24, which is Rs 49,103 crore. Nagaland’s annual budget for 2023-24 is Rs 23,086 crore, Mizoram Rs 14,210 crore and Sikkim Rs 11,807 crore.
Among major parties, BJP’s 1,356 MLAs have average assets of Rs 11.97 crore, Congress’s 719 MLAs have average assets of Rs 21.97 crore, Trinamool Congress’s 227 MLAs have average assets of Rs 3.51 crore, AAP’s 161 MLAs have average assets of Rs 10.20 crore and YSRCP’s Rs 10.20 crore. The average assets of 146 MLAs is Rs 23.14 crore.
The total assets of BJP and Congress MLAs are Rs 16,234 crore and Rs 15,798 crore respectively, which is 58.73 per cent (Rs 32,032 crore) of the total assets of Rs 54,545 crore of sitting MLAs of 84 political parties and independents, the report said. It said that the total assets of 223 MLAs of Karnataka are Rs 14,359 crore, 284 MLAs of Maharashtra have assets of Rs 6,679 crore and 174 MLAs of Andhra Pradesh have assets of Rs 4,914 crore.
The assets of 223 Karnataka MLAs exceed the individual annual budget 2023-24 of Mizoram and Sikkim. This is 26 per cent of the total assets of Rs 54,545 crore of all sitting MLAs, the report said.
