32% of UP MLCs have criminal cases: ADR

Nearly 32 per cent of the members of the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Parishad or Legislative Council have declared criminal cases against themselves.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Uttar Pradesh Election Watch that analysed the criminal, financial and other background details of 81 out of 100 sitting MLCs in the Upper House, found that 26 (32 per cent) MLCs have serious criminal cases.

In the current Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, two seats are vacant and seven MLCs have not been analysed as their affidavits were unavailable.

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The 10 nominated MLCs are not required to submit their affidavits, hence their information on criminal, financial and other details are not available in the public domain.

According to the ADR release, three MLCs have declared cases related to murder (IPC section 302) while four have declared cases related to attempt to murder (IPC Section 307).

Party wise, MLCs with criminal cases include BJP that has 22 out of 66 MLCs with criminal cases, SP has three out of seven and one of the six Independent MLCs have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Out of the 81 sitting MLCs analysed, 66 are crorepatis with the maximum belonging to the BJP.

Nearly, 54 out of 66 MLCs from BJP, six out of seven MLCs from SP, one MLC from Apna Dal (Sonelal) and five out of the six Independent MLCs have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.

Thirteen MLCs have declared their educational qualification to be between 8th pass and 12th pass, while 66 MLCs have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above and 1 MLC has stated that he is just literate.