Thirty-one, or 44%, of the 70 newly elected MLAs in Delhi have criminal cases against them, said the non-profit organisation Association for Democratic Reforms in a report released on Monday.

Of the total, 17, or 24%, of the MLAs are accused persons in serious criminal cases, including those relating to alleged murder and sexual assault.

The Assembly elections took place on February 5 and the votes were counted on Saturday. The Bharatiya Janata Party defeated the Aam Aadmi Party, securing 48 seats in the 70-member Assembly. The AAP bagged 22 constituencies.

The election watchdog analysed the self-sworn affidavits of the newly-elected MLAs.

It found that 16, or 33%, of the MLAs from the BJP are accused persons in criminal cases. On the other hand, 15, or 68%, legislators from the Aam Aadmi Party are facing such cases.

The report also highlighted that BJP MLAs were considerably wealthier than those from the AAP. While legislators from the Hindutva party have an average asset value of Rs 28.5 crore, those from the Aam Aadmi Party have average assets worth Rs 7.7 crore.

The three wealthiest MLAs were from the BJP, with Karnail Singh, the legislator from Shakur Basti, leading the list with assets worth Rs 259 crore. In contrast, Sanjeev Jha, the AAP MLA from Burari, had the lowest assets, valued at just Rs 14 lakh.

The nonprofit pointed out that the Assembly continued to be largely male-dominated, with only five, or 7%, of the total winning candidates being women. This marked a fall from 2020 when women made up 11% of the members.

Additionally, 47, or 67%, of the winners are between the ages of 41 and 60, while 14, or 20%, are aged 61 or older. The youngest winner, BJP’s Umang Bajaj, is 31. The oldest, Tilak Ram Gupta from the Hindutva party, is 73.

Also read: How the Congress cost AAP a majority in Delhi