An analysis of the winning candidates in the Maharashtra Legislative Council Biennial elections 2015 reveals that a majority of the winners have criminal and serious criminal records against their names. The analysis done by Association of Democratic Reforms has also found that nearly all the winners are crorepati candidates with one having the assets worth Rs 87 crore.
According to the analysis out of the eight winners belonging to the INC, SHS, BJP, NCP and one independent six of them have criminal or serious criminal cases registered against them. While all three INC winners have criminal cases against their name one of them has a serious case. The lone winners from BJP and NCP also have criminal cases while the NCP winner also has a serious criminal case against his name. Out of the two winners from Shiv Sena, one has a criminal case while the other has none.
While analysing the financial background of the winners it was found that seven of the eight winners were crorepatis with Ashok Arjunrao or Bhai Jagtap from the Congress being the richest candidate with movable and immovable assets worth Rs 87 crore. Jagtap was closely followed by fellow party member Amrish Patel who has assets worth 'Rs 80 crore. The richest winner Satej Patil is also from INC and has assets worth Rs 29 crore. Arun Jagtap from NCP and Gopikisan Bajoriya from Shiv Sena had assets worth Rs 27 crore and Rs16 crore respectively. Paricharak Prabhakar the independent, Ramdas Kadam of Shiv Sena and Vyas Bachhraj had assets of Rs10 cr, Rs4 crore and Rs 86 lakh respectively. Patil is the only winner who has declared an annual income of more than Rs 1 cr.
The analyses of the educational qualifications of the winners show that four of them are Class 12 pass or lower while the other four are graduate or above. The gender analyses reveals that all the eight winners are men.
When contacted to get his comment on the report, Amrish Patel asked to call back after some time. However, later he did not take calls. Bhai Jagtap and Ramdas Kadam also did not respond to calls.
“While previously muscle power was being used to win elections, it is probably being replaced by money power. The fact that parties’ field candidates who are financially strong despite having criminal backgrounds shows an alarming trend which is detrimental for democracy,” said an ADR spokesperson.
