Maharashtra 2019: 40% of New MLAs Face Serious Criminal Cases, 93% Are Crorepatis

Close to 40 per cent of the MLAs elected to the new Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, 113 in all, have declared serious criminal cases against themselves, according to an Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) study of the affidavits they filed with their nominations.

Criminal cases

ADR examined the affidavits of 285 of the 288 MLAs; the rest could not be studied because complete affidavits were not available. In total, 176 MLAs declared criminal cases of some kind, five percentage points more than in the previous assembly. Among those facing serious charges, two declared murder cases, 11 declared attempt-to-murder cases and 4 declared kidnapping cases under IPC Section 363.

By party, serious cases were declared by:

• 40 (38 per cent) of the BJP’s 105 MLAs
• 26 (47 per cent) of the Shiv Sena’s 55 MLAs
• 17 (32 per cent) of the NCP’s 53 MLAs
• 15 (34 per cent) of the Congress MLAs
• half of the 12 independents (six)

Wealth of the new MLAs

The study found 264 of the 285 MLAs, or 93 per cent, are crorepatis, up from 88 per cent in 2014. Average declared assets per MLA stand at Rs 22 crore, more than double the figure of nearly Rs 11 crore in 2014, and 180 MLAs (over 63 per cent) declared assets of Rs 5 crore or more.

Crorepatis make up 100 of the BJP’s 105 MLAs, 51 of the Shiv Sena’s 55, 47 of the NCP’s 53 and 42 of the Congress’ 44. Average assets were Rs 27.46 crore for BJP MLAs, Rs 24.46 crore for Congress MLAs, Rs 15.01 crore for NCP MLAs and Rs 13.74 crore for Shiv Sena MLAs.

The richest winner is the BJP’s Parag Shah of Ghatkopar East, who declared assets of over Rs 500 crore, followed by the BJP’s Mangalprabhat Lodha of Malabar Hill at more than Rs 441 crore. The new House will also have 24 women MLAs, up from 20.

What happened next

The final 2019 tally was BJP 105, Shiv Sena 56, NCP 54 and Congress 44. After the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance broke down, Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena became Chief Minister in November 2019 with the backing of the NCP and the Congress.

See also: state assembly members.

Originally published on 26 October 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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