40% winners in recent polls are crorepatis

NEW DELHI: Crorepati banega MLA. The more money you have, the greater are the chances of winning a seat. That���s the mantra emerging from the recent assembly elections in five states, a study of the affidavits filed by candidates along with their nomination papers has revealed.

Crorepati candidates have won 40% of the seats in the elections from a total of 629 seats across the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Delhi.

Fewer than 3% of the candidates with assets of less than Rs 5 lakh have triumphed, the report prepared by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) as part of the New Election Watch campaign has revealed. ADR is a collective of more than 1,200 NGOs and citizens��� groups working for electoral reforms.

The average Delhi assembly MLA of 2008 is worth Rs 2.86 crore. There isn���t much to choose financially between the average BJP MLA (Rs 2.8 cr) and the Congress MLA (Rs 2.7 cr).

Interestingly, the average assets of the six BSP MLAs in Rajasthan works out to a whopping Rs 3.45 crore.



In Delhi, 31% of the crorepatis with assets above Rs 5 crore emerged successful whereas no candidate with less than Rs 5 lakh won.

The contrast is sharper in Chhattisgarh where 50%, or every second contesting crorepati with assets of more than Rs 3 crore, prevailed.

In comparison, among candidates with kitties of less than Rs 5 lakh, only 2% were victorious.