Delhi’s seventh Legislative Assembly is set to be sworn-in soon, days after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) retained power in the national capital.
AAP bagged 62 of the total 70 seats in the Assembly election held on February 8. Its main challenger, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), won the remaining eight seats. The Congress failed to open its account for the second consecutive assembly election in Delhi.
While the date for swearing-in of the newly-elected Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) has not been announced, it is likely to happen later this month. Kejriwal will be sworn-in as the Chief Minister for his third term on February 16 at New Delhi’s iconic Ramlila Maidan.
Here is a brief look at Delhi’s seventh Legislative Assembly:
More crorepati MLAs
In 2014, a total of 44 MLAs (63 percent) with declared financial assets of Rs 1 crore or more had won the election. According to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), this number has risen to 52 (74 percent) in 2020.
While, 45 out of AAP’s 62 MLAs (about 73 percent) are crorepatis, seven of the eight BJP MLAs (about 88 percent) are also crorepatis.
Of the total 44 crorepati MLAs, 38 have declared assets worth over Rs 2 crore. Further, of these 38, 25 have assets worth over Rs 5 crore.
The average declared assets of MLAs in 2015 was around Rs 6.2 crore. Now, this has more than doubled to Rs 14.2 crore.
If these number are divided along party lines, AAP MLAs’ average assets are Rs 14.9 crore. Average assets of BJP MLAs is Rs 9.1 crore.
More MLAs with criminal cases
In 2015, there were a total of 24 MLAs who had declared some kind of criminal cases pending against them. That was about 34 percent of the House.
According to the ADR report, the number has now nearly doubled to 43 — about 61 percent.
Further, the number of MLAs facing serious criminal cases has risen from 14 to 37 — 20 percent to 53 percent. Around 33 out of the 62 AAP MLAs and four of BJP’s eight MLAs have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
Of these, nine MLAs have declared convicted cases against themselves.
Serious criminal cases are categories as offences for which are non-bailable and have a maximum punishment is of five years or more. These offences may be related to crimes against women, assault, murder, kidnap, rape and offences under Prevention of Corruption Act, among others.
60% MLAs are graduates or more
Of the 70 elected MLAs, 23 MLAs have declared their educational qualification to be between 8th and 12th pass. Around 42 others (60 percent) have declared being a graduate or above. Around five MLAs have declared having a diploma.
As many as 39 MLAs are in the 25-50 age group. The other 31 MLAs are aged between 51 and 80 years. The number of women MLAs elected to the Assembly is eight — up from six elected in 2015.
The ADR report analyses the newly elected MLAs on the basis of financial assets, educational qualification and age. The analysis of all 70 elected MLAs was done on the basis of declarations made by the legislators in their election affidavit.
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