Association for Democratic Reforms News

Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch has compiled a report assessing the performance of 521 sitting members, ex-members, and the Anglo-Indian nominated members of the 17th Lok Sabha.  

About 12 per cent of sitting Rajya Sabha MPs are billionaires with Andhra Pradesh and Telangana having the highest percentage of such parliamentarians, according to a new report.

The report stated that 87 candidates, which is 23 per cent of the total, have declared their assets as more than Rs 5 crore, while there are 37 candidates, which is 10 per cent, have declared assets between Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore.

BJP has declared assets worth Rs 4,847.78 crore in 2019-20, the highest among all political parties. It is followed by the BSP at Rs 698.33 crore and the Congress at Rs 588.16 crore. As per an analysis, the total assets declared by the seven national parties amounted to Rs 6,988.57 crore.

The parties include--DMDK, PMK, NDPP, NPF, and JMM and have not provided PAN details of even a single donor in their donations statements.

This is a violation of SC judgment which states no part of Form 24A submitted by political parties providing details of donations above Rs 20,000 should be blank. 

Crorepati and criminal MLAs dominated the Andhra Pradesh Assembly Elections 2019 with a huge vote share of more than 50 per cent, an analysis by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Andhra Pradesh Election Watch (APEW) showed.

The combined declared assets of seven national parties grew by 6% from Rs 3456.65 crores in FY 2016-17 to Rs 3260.81 crores in FY 2017-18.  

The Congress is at second place with a total contribution of Rs 55.36 cr from 151 corporate donors, and NCP is at third position with Rs 7.737 cr from 23 corporate donors.

Seven lawmakers from Delhi have the highest average attendance, who were present in 289 out of the 312 sittings. 

The state Assembly also has 158 crorepati winners.

Out of the 230 winners in the MP Assembly polls 2018, just 21 are women. 

The report was prepared by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) after analysing the total income and expenditure incurred by the seven national parties as declared in their Income Tax Returns submitted to the EC.

Among the Southern States which have gone for elections in the last 5 years (2013-2018), it has been observed that MLAs have spent the most on the vehicles used for the campaign.

Of the 2,654 candidates in the fray for the May 12 Karnataka Assembly elections, at least 883 are crorepatis and 645 have criminal cases against them, as per Association for Democratic Reforms.

While political parties keep accusing each other of indulging in hate mongering, election affidavits of several lawmakers have revealed that at least 58 MPs and MLAs from across party lines have cases related to hate speech against them. As per a report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW), 15 sitting Lok Sabha MPs have declared cases related to hate speech against themselves. The analysis is based on the affidavits submitted by the candidates and MPs/MLAs prior to the last election they contested.

According to ADR, 114 or 59 percent out of the total 196 candidates in the fray, have declared their assets in crores.

Political parties collected over Rs 1,500 crore during the five state Assembly elections held in 2017.

In India, around 35 percent chief ministers have criminal cases against them, according to an ADR report. 

An analysis of the affidavits of 836 candidates, out of the total 869 in fray for the ongoing polls in 10 municipal councils in Maharashtra, has revealed that 87 of them were facing criminal cases, including some serious charges like murder, rape, kidnapping and dacoity.