Of 9 Maharashtra MLCs elected, 8 have average assets worth Rs 28.9 cr

Elections to nine seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council were held in May. The elections were important for two reasons: One, they were held in the midst of a raging health crisis— Maharashtra is one of the COVID-19 pandemic’s worst victims; two, if the elections had not been held, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray might not have been able to hold on to his chief ministership.

All the candidates were elected by MLAs unopposed.

Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Maharashtra Election Watch have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all the nine winners. Of the nine, eight are crorepatis.

They have Rs 28.9 crore worth of assets on average. Thackeray declared most assets among the winners — worth Rs  143.26 crore.

 

The chief minister was followed by Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil (BJP) with assets worth Rs 50 crore and Shashikant Shinde (NCP) with assets worth Rs 39 crore.

Most have reported that their income sourced from agriculture and allied activities or business. But in Thackeray’s case, his income is from salary, interest, dividend and capital Gain. Thackeray’s income in 2018-19 was around Rs 38 lakh.

All the winners are tax filers and have PAN Cards.

Data & Text: Association for Democratic Reforms