Persons with criminal background have majority in Assembly

Thiruvananthapuram: The number of members with criminal background will be increasing in the Kerala Assembly.

As many as 87 of the newly-elected members have criminal cases against them. The cases against 27 of them are of serious nature such as those related to murder, attempt to murder and kidnapping.

An analysis by Kerala Election Watch in collaboration with Association of Democratic Reforms based on sworn affidavits filed by candidates showed that the percentage of persons with criminal background was 67 in the outgoing Assembly.  Only nine per cent of the 140 members in the 13^th Kerala Assembly had serious criminal cases against them. This will go up to 19 per cent in the 14^th Kerala Assembly.

All the seven incoming members with murder or attempt to murder cases belong to CPI (M). As many as 53 (91%) out of 58 MLAs from CPI(M), 12 (63%) out of 19 MLAs from CPI, 9 (41%) out of 22 MLAs from INC, 4 (22%) out of 18 MLAs from IUML, 4 (67%) out of 6 IND MLAs, 1 (33%) out of 3 MLAs of JD(S), 1 (50%) out of 2 MLAs from NCP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

The affidavits also show that 29 per cent of the elected representatives from CPI (M), 23 per cent of representatives from Congress, 16 per cent of the representatives from CPI and six per cent of the elected representatives from Muslim League have serious criminal cases against them.

The majority of the newly elected members have degree or higher educational qualifications.  As many as 32 are graduate professionals and 24 are post graduates.  While 40 have passed SSLC or Plus Two, 15 have either passed 5^th or 8^th standard. Two have doctorates while two are stated to be literate.

While 53 of them are aged more than 60 years, 45 are less than 50 years of age.