Richest Delhi assembly: 74% MLAs millionaires, average assets at Rs 14.29 crore

NEW DELHI: Three-fourth of the new Delhi MLAs are millionaires, one-third have not studied beyond senior secondary and more than half have criminal cases against them, according to the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR).nnAccording to ADR, 45 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators of the 62, and seven of the eight Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs had declared more than Rs 1 crore assets while filing their nomination papers.nnThere were 44 millionaire MLAs in 2015.nnThe average of assets per MLA in the new Delhi Assembly is Rs 14.29 crore, which is more than double the average of Rs 6.29 crore in 2015.nnOf the AAP legislators, the average assets per MLA is Rs 14.96 crore and in case of the BJP it’s Rs 9.10 crore.nnThe richest AAP legislators as per their election affidavit are Dharampal Lakra (Mundka), followed by Promila Tokas (R.K. Puram) and Raaj Kumar Anand (Patel Nagar).nnRakhi Birla (Mangolpuri) is the poorest AAP legislator with Rs 76,000 assets, followed by Sanjeev Jha (Burari) at Rs 10 lakh and Som Dutt (Sadar Bazar) at Rs 11 lakh.nnThere has been a sharp jump in the number of MLAs with registered criminal cases. In 2020, 43 MLAs declared criminal cases against them while in 2015, 24 MLAs had criminal cases.nnThe number of MLAs with serious criminal cases, which included rape, attempt to murder and crimes against women, is 37.nnIn terms of education, 23 MLAs are between 8th pass and 12th pass, 42 graduates and above, and five diploma holders.nnWhile 39 MLAs are aged between 25 years and 50 years, 31 are in the 51-80 years age group.nnOf the 70 MLAs, eight are women against six in 2015.nnThe Delhi Election Watch and the ADR analysed the affidavits of all 70 newly elected MLAs.nnSource: Press Trust of India