'Both richest and poorest MLAs are from Cong in C'garh'

In the 90-member Assembly of Chhattisgarh, both the richest and the poorest MLAs are from the Congress, a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) indicate.

T S Singhdeo, who belongs to the Sarguja royal family and is the current 'Maharaja' (118th) of the erstwhile princely state of Sarguja in Chhattisgarh, is the richest Congress legislator in the state assembly with assets worth over Rs 500 crore.

The poorest among all the 90 newly elected MLAs is the Congress' Ram Kumar Yadav who has “movable assets” worth Rs 30,464 lakh.

Bhupesh Baghel, who will be sworn-in as the chief minister of Chhattisgarh on Monday, is among the top 10 MLAs with highest assets in possession.

The chief minister designate owns both movable and immovable assets of worth over Rs 24 crore.

The ADR, a non-government election watchdog, have placed him at fifth position in the list of top 10 MLAs with highest assets in their report.

Ajit Jogi's Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) party MLA Devwrat Singh is the second richest legislator with assets worth over Rs 119 crore after Congress Singhdeo, followed by Congress MLA Amitesh Shukla with assets worth over Rs 75 crore and BJP legislator Saurabh Singh Thakur with assets worth over Rs 27 crore.

Among a total of 68 newly elected Congress MLAs, 48 are crorepatis while the BJP's fourteen of the total 15 newly elected MLAs are crorepatis.

All the five MLAs of the JCC including Jogi and his wife Renu Jogi are crorepatis, according to the ADR which analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all 90 newly elected MLAs.

When it comes to Madhya Pradesh, BJP MLAs are the richest and the poorest.

Sanjay Satyendra Pathak is the richest with Rs 226.17 crore assets while the poorest Ram Dangore has assets worth just Rs 50,749.

Out of the 230 newly elected MLAs, 187 (81%) are crorepatis. In the last Assembly, it was 161.

Of this, 91 are from BJP while 90 are from Congress.

The average assets per MLA in the Madhya Pradesh 2018 Assembly elections is Rs. 10.17 crore while it was Rs 5.24 crore in the previous Assembly.

Of the 86 re-elected MLAs, the average assets of re-elected MLAs in 2018 is Rs 15.67 crore.

The average assets of re-elected MLAs in 2013 was Rs 8.71 crore.