A man unfurls the party flag as BJP supporters celebrate the party’s victory in the Delhi state Assembly elections.
When it comes to crorepati leaders winning the elections, Delhi seems to have taken the cake among the four states with at least 52 such MLAs in the 70-member strong assembly.
While absolute number of MLAs with assets running into crores of rupees may be higher for Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the number of constituencies in these two states is also higher at 230 and 200, respectively. Chhattisgarh has a 90-member assembly.
According to an analysis of winners announced today for the four state elections, nearly three-fourth of elected MLAs in Delhi have assets running into crores of rupees, as against about two-third concentration of such MLAs in Rajasthan and even less in Madhya Pradesh. The percentage of crorepati MLAs in Chhattisgarh is even lower.
Among Delhi's newly elected crorepati MLAs, more than half of them are from BJP and the rest from Congress and the debutant Aam Aadmi Party. These include Harsh Vardhan and Arvind Kejriwal, both of whom won their respective seats with huge margins.
As per declared assets, the richest MLA in Delhi assembly would be Manjinder Singh Sirsa of Shiromany Akali Dal (Rs 235.51 crore), who has won from Rajouri Garden constituency.
There were as many as 265 crorepati candidates in fray for Delhi elections, while there were 370 such candidates in Madhya Pradesh, 346 in Rajasthan and 213 in Chhattisgarh, according to Association for Democratic Reform (ADR).
The average asset per candidate contesting in the 2013 Delhi Assembly Elections was Rs 3.43 crore, up from Rs 1.77 crore in the previous elections in 2008.
As per ADR estimates, the average asset per candidate for Congress party in Delhi was Rs 14.25 crore, followed by Rs 8.16 crore for the BJP and Rs 2.51 crore for AAP.