Here are some thoughts for the voter to ponder over. There are 190 MLAs in the poll-bound states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur who have self-declared pending criminal charges against them as per their affidavits.
 
The National Election Watch, which analysed affidavits submitted to the Election Commission of India by 690 MLAs belong to the poll-bound states, states that 28 per cent of the legislators (190 out of 690 analysed) have self-declared pending criminal charges as per their affidavits in the previous assembly elections.

Eighty nine MLAs out of these 690 have declared serious charges under the Indian Penal Code like murder and attempt to murder charges against them.

Uttar Pradesh has the maximum percentage of MLAs (35 per cent) with pending criminal cases, with 143 out of the 403 MLAs being charged with criminal cases.

Out of the 143, 76 (19 per cent) MLAs have serious criminal cases pending against them.

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Dhirendra Pratap Singh of the Bahujan Samaj Party has the highest number of criminal cases (29) -- of which 13 are serious charges -- followed by his party colleague Sushil Kumar with 14 cases pending against him. The charges are related to murder, attempt to murder etc.

A total of 239 MLAs (35 per cent of the total analyzed) are crorepatis. Out of the 690 MLAs analysed, 235 have not given their Personal Account Number details. Out of 690 MLAs only 35 (5 per cent) are women.

Kanwarjit Singh, Congress MLA from Muktsar constituency in Punjab, has the lowest number of cases registered against him with just one serious charge.

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In the list of crorepati MLAs, it is Uttar Pradesh that once again tops the list. UP has 127 crorepati MLAs while Manipur has just o#8800 Punjab has 78, Goa 22 and Uttarakhand 11.

Ajay Pratap Singh alias Lalla, Congress MLA from the Colonelganj constituency in UP, is the richest in his state with assets worth Rs 31 crore. In Punjab, the richest candidate is Amarinder Singh (Congress) of Patiala Town with assets worth Rs 38 crore.

Amrita Rawat, Congress MLAs from the Bironkhal constituency in Uttarkhand, is the richest in the state with assets worth Rs 12 crore. In Manipur, Radhabinod K, Nationalist Congress Party MLA from the Thanmeiband constituency, is the richest with Rs 1 crore.

Goa, however, has the richest MLA in all the lists put together. Anil Vasudev Salgaonkar, Independent from Sanvordem, has assets worth Rs 71 crore.

Among the poorest are: Kaushlendra Nath Yogi (BJP) from Tulsipur, UP, with assets of Rs 51,000; Ajit Singh (Independent) from Punjab's Nihal Singh Wala with assets of Rs 4 lakh; Om Gopal (UKKD) of Narendranagar, Uttarkhand, has assets of Rs 20,000; Awangbow Newmei from the Tamei contituency has assets of Rs 50,000; Gaonkar Vasudev Mengan (BJP) from Goa's Sanguem constituency has assets worth Rs 4 lakh.

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