37% West Bengal sitting MLAs have criminal cases against them

A total of 68 MLAs of the ruling All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) have declared criminal cases in their affidavits. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Credit: PTI Photo

In poll-bound West Bengal, 37 per cent of the 282 sitting MLAs in the state Assembly have declared criminal cases against themselves.

A total of 68 MLAs of the ruling All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) have declared criminal cases in their affidavits, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

Other than that, 20 MLAs from the Indian National Congress (INC), 11 from the CPI(M), three from BJP, one from CPI and one Independent MLA have also declared criminal cases against themselves.

Read: 97 out of 282 sitting MLAs are crorepatis, 78 of them are from TMC

The ADR analysed the criminal details of 282 out of 294 sitting MLAs. The report did not take the remaining MLAs into account as Sudarsan Ghosh Dostidar of AITC and Ali Imran Ramz of AIFB has 'unclear' affidavits. The other 10 seats are currently vacant in the state Assembly.

Credit: adrindia.org

Elections to the 294-member Assembly will be held in eight phases from March 27 to April 29 and the counting of votes will be taken up on May 2.