As many as 205 of the 230 newly-elected MLAs in Madhya Pradesh are crorepatis with State Congress president Kamal Nath figuring among the three richest lawmakers with more than ₹134 crore worth of assets. The average assets of the MLAs stood at ₹11.77 crore.
Also read: Crorepatis in Parliament
Newly-elected BJP MLA from Ratlam City, Chaitanya Kashyap, tops the list with declared assets worth ₹296 crore, while his party colleague Sanjay Satyendra Pathak (Vijayraghavgarh) was at the second spot with ₹242 crore assets, according to an Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report.
It said the number of MLAs possessing assets worth more than ₹1 crore increased to 205 in 2023 from 187 in 2018. Of these crorepati MLAs, 144 are from the BJP and 61 from the Congress.
The BJP swept the Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls, winning 163 seats, increasing its tally from 109 in 2018. The Congress, which had won 114 seats in 2018 in the State, was reduced to 66 seats, while new entrant, the Bharat Adivasi Party managed to win in one constituency.
The winning candidate of the Bharat Adivasi Party, Kamlesh Dodiyar, leads among the newly elected MLAs with the lowest assets. Mr. Dodiyar has declared assets worth ₹18 lakh.
“Two other candidates with the lowest assets included BJP’s Santosh Varkade (Sihora) with assets worth ₹25 lakh, and his party colleague Kanchan Mukesh Tanve (Khandwa) with assets totalling ₹26 lakh,” said the report.
“Among the candidates having the highest liabilities, BJP’s former Minister Surendra Patwa (Bhojpur) is leading with a debt of ₹57 crore, Dinesh Jain (Mahidpur) of the Congress was in second place with ₹30 crore and BJP’s Bhupendra Singh (Khurai) on third with ₹23 crore,” said the ADR.
The report said of the 205 crorepatis, 102 MLAs have declared assets of ₹5 crore and above. As many as 71 legislators have declared assets between ₹2 crore and ₹5 crore. Also, 48 legislators have declared assets between ₹50 lakh and ₹2 crores while nine of the elected MLAs own assets lower than ₹50 lakh.
“The average assets of the newly elected MLAs stood at ₹11.77 crore, up from ₹10.17 crore in 2018,” said the report.
