Around 58% of the newly elected MLAs in West Bengal have declared serious criminal cases against themselves, according to a study released on Tuesday by the Association for Democratic Reforms.
The findings came a day after the results of the Assembly elections were announced, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party defeated the All India Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee, ending the party’s 15-year rule in the state. The BJP secured 207 seats in the 294-member Assembly.
According to the report, 170 legislators declared serious criminal cases, a sharp rise from 113 in the 2021 Assembly, Scroll.in reported.
Overall, 190 MLAs, representing 65% of those analysed, disclosed criminal cases compared to 49% in the previous Assembly.
The organisation classified serious criminal cases as offences carrying a punishment of five years or more, non-bailable offences, or cases involving losses to the public exchequer.
These include charges such as assault, murder, kidnapping, rape, crimes against women, offences listed under the Representation of the People Act, and cases registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The study found that 14 winning candidates had declared murder-related cases, while 54 faced charges of attempted murder. It also noted that 63 victorious candidates disclosed cases related to crimes against women, including two candidates who declared rape charges.
The ADR analysed affidavits submitted by 292 of the 293 winning candidates in the 2026 Assembly elections. Repolling has been ordered in the Falta constituency, while BJP leader Arjun Singh, who won from Noapara, was excluded from the analysis because the affidavit uploaded on the Election Commission website was reportedly unclear at the time of the study.
Party-wise, the report stated that 141 of the BJP’s 206 analysed winners, accounting for 68%, declared serious criminal cases. Among the TMC’s 80 victorious candidates, 25, or 31%, reported similar cases.
The study further noted that all winning candidates from the Aam Janata Unnayan Party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the All India Secular Front had declared serious criminal cases, while both winning candidates from the Indian National Congress had clean records.
The report also highlighted a rise in the number of wealthy legislators. Of the 292 winning candidates analysed, 178, or 61%, declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore, compared to 54% in 2021.
According to the findings, the combined declared assets of all winning candidates amounted to Rs 1,091 crore, while the average assets per MLA increased from Rs 2.5 crore in the previous Assembly to Rs 3.7 crore.
Among major parties, TMC legislators reported average assets of Rs 5.3 crore, while BJP MLAs declared average assets of Rs 2.9 crore. The two Congress MLAs recorded the highest average assets at Rs 17.9 crore. BJP leader Dilip Saha declared the highest assets among all winners, exceeding Rs 43 crore.
The report also analysed 102 re-elected MLAs and found that their average assets had risen by nearly 60% since 2021, increasing from approximately Rs 2.3 crore to Rs 3.8 crore.
Women continued to remain underrepresented in the Assembly, with only 37 women among the 292 MLAs analysed, accounting for 13% of the total. The figure was slightly lower than the 14% recorded in 2021.
The study further found that 63% of the winning candidates declared educational qualifications at the graduate level or above, while 32% reported educational qualifications between Class 5 and Class 12. One winning candidate declared being illiterate.