On the first day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament on Monday, 4,896 legislators will be voting to elect the next President of India. The voting will take place in the Parliament House in New Delhi and respective Assemblies in 28 states and two Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry.

Of the total electors, about 33 per cent have mentioned criminal cases against them in their affidavits, according to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW).

The electors are generally the rich people, according to the analysis by the ADR and the NEW. About 71 per cent of the legislators are crorepatis.

The ADR and the NEW have analyzed 4,852 out of 4,896 affidavits including 774 out of 776 of MPs. Affidavits of 4,078 of total 4,120 MLAs from all the states of India were also examined.

These MPs and MLAs collectively form the Electoral College, who exercise their right to vote in the Presidential Election. The analysis of the ADR and the NEW covers 10,91,472 of total 10,98,903 votes in the electoral pool for the Presidential Election 2017.

ELECTORS WITH CRIMINAL CASES Of the 4,852 MPs and MLAs, whose affidavits were analysed, 1,581 or about 33 per cent of the electors have declared criminal cases against themselves in a self-sworn affidavit filed with the Election Commission of India. The declarations were made in their respective last elections for the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and state Assemblies.

Of 543 Lok Sabha MPs, 184 or 34 per cent have declared criminal cases against them. MLAs of the state and UT Assemblies are not far behind. Of 41078 MLAs, 1,353 or 33 per cent have themselves reported criminal cases against them.

Members of Rajya Sabha - the House of Elders - look much sober in comparison. OF 231 Rajya Sabha MPs, 44 or only 19 per cent have criminal cases against them, according to the affidavits filed by Upper House members.

Of those having criminal cases against them, about 20 per cent face or have faced serious criminal charges. A total of 993 electors, who will be participating in the Presidential Election 2017, have reported serious criminal cases against them.

In the Lok Sabha, 117 or 22 per cent of the total MPs have reported serious criminal charges registered against themselves while 16 or seven per cent of the Rajya Sabha MPs mentioned being involved in cases of serious criminal offences.

Abour 21 per cent or 860 MLAs from various Assemblies have serious criminal charges slapped against them.

Based on the number of votes that MPs and MLAs, who have declared criminal cases, are entitled to cast, a total of 3,67,393 votes or simply 34 per cent of electoral college faces declared criminal cases, according to the ADR.

SUPER RICH MPs, MLAs

According to the declarations made by the MPs and MLAs, a total of 3,460 or 71 per cent of the 4,852 members of the Electoral College for the Presidential Election 2017 are crorepatis.

About 82 per cent or 445 of 543 Lok Sabha MPs are crorepatis as per their self-sworn affidavits submitted to the Election Commission of India. The number of crorepatis in the Rajya Sabha is 194 or 84 per cent of its present strength while 2721 or 68 per cent of 4078 MLAs from all states and UT assemblies have shown income in crores.

Based on the number of votes these crorepatis MPs and MLAs are entitled to cast, a total of 75 per cent or 8,18,703 votes of the Electoral College belong to these super rich legislators.

Amongst state assemblies, Karnataka has the maximum number of votes by crorepati electors with 30,400 or 93 per cent of 32,680 votes belonging to super rich MLAs.

DISMAL REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN

According to the ADR analysis, of 4852 MPs and MLAs who are entitled to vote in the Presidential Election 2017, 451 electors or only 9 per cent are women.

Based on the number of votes the women MPs and MLAs are entitled to cast, only 10 per cent belongs to them.

The Lok Sabha has 65 women MPs, who have about 12 per cent share in the vote pool represented by the lower house. The Rajya Sabha has 23 women MPs with 10 per cent vote share in the pool represented by the upper house.

In all the state and UT assemblies, there are only 363 women MLAs, who share only nine per cent of the total votes in the vote pool represented by states.

Uttar Pradesh has the maximum value of women votes at 8320. Of 402 MLAs in the UP Assembly, 40 are women.

UP is followed by West Bengal with 6,191 votes for 41 women MLAs in the Assembly of 293 legislators. Madhya Pradesh stands at third position with 4,192 votes for its 32 women electors in the house 230 MLAs.

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