Rich MPs of Poor India

The average annual per capita income in India stands at around one lakh rupees. But their representatives are Crorepathis. The NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) working for electoral and political reforms makes the following observations about the crorepati MPs:

• Results of the recently concluded Lok Sabha Elections show that richer the candidate the brighter the chances of winning.
• Around a third (30.1%) of candidates with total assets of Rs 5 crore and above have won whereas the success rate of candidates with total assets of less than Rs 10 lakh was a mere 0.3%.
• The percentage of crorepati MPs has risen steadily from 58% in the 15th Lok Sabha (2009) to 82% in the 16th (2014), and 88% in the 17th Lok Sabha (2019).
• 475 MP had total assets of Rs 1 crore or more against 443in 2014, and 315/543 in 2009.

Lack of internal democracy in political parties and increasing money powers in the election are said to be the drivers of the trend of increasing money power in elections.