Maharashtra will head for voting on October 21, along with Haryana. Counting of votes in both states will happen on October 24.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hoping to retain power in the heavily-industrialised state, along with its traditional ally – the Shiv Sena.
This National Democratic Alliance (NDA), locally known as ‘Maha-Yuti’, is being challenged by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) that mainly comprises the Congress and Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The Congress-NCP alliance is locally known as ‘Maha-Aghadi’. Congress is being led by its Interim President Sonia Gandhi. Both alliances include other smaller partners. Some regional parties are also in fray.
The tenure of the sitting Legislative Assembly will end on November 9.
Here’s a look at key aspects of the outgoing Assembly:
The Maharashtra Assembly has a total of 289 members. However, elections are held only for 288 seats as one member is nominated.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Haryana Election Watch have analysed details of the sitting MLAs based on affidavits submitted by candidates prior to the 2014 Assembly elections and subsequent bypolls. The report does not include analysis of 12 MLAs due to unavailability of their properly scanned or complete affidavits. Additionally, one seat -- Katol -- is vacant.
Criminal cases
Out of the 275 MLAs who were analysed, 158 legislators declared criminal records against them.
Of those 158, 110 have serious criminal cases against them. Serious cases include offences for which maximum punishment is of five years or more, a non-bailable offence, and crimes against women, among others.
As many as three and 14 MLAs declared that they were facing cases related to murder and attempt to murder, respectively.
Assembly of crorepatis
As many as 239 of the 275 sitting MLAs who were analysed declared their assets valued at Rs 1 crore or more.
Among the BJP MLAs, 85 percent legislators were crorepatis. About 84 percent of Shiv Sena’s MLAs declared themselves crorepatis.
Among the NCP and Congress MLAs, 95 percent and 90 percent were crorepatis, respectively. Of the six Independent MLAs, five have declared assets valued over Rs 1 crore.
Average assets per sitting MLA in Maharashtra is Rs 10.6 crore.
BJP’s Malabar Hill MLA Mangal Prabhat Lodha is the wealthiest MLA in the outgoing Assembly with assets valued at around Rs 198 crore. He also has the highest liabilities of Rs 91 crore, according to the ADR report.
Educational background
As many as 116 MLAs have declared that their educational qualification to be between fifth pass and twelfth pass.
About 148 declared being at least a graduate. Three MLAs have declared that they are literate.
Of all the MLAs that were analysed, 146 were aged between 25 and 50 years. About 128 were aged between 51 and 80 years. One MLA is aged above 80 years.
Only 21 MLAs in the outgoing Assembly are women.
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