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President Ram Nath Kovind with Chief Election Commissioner, Sunil Arora, accompanied by Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi on Saturday.[/caption]
New Delhi, May 25 (PTI): The Election Commission on Saturday submitted a list of newly-elected MPs to President Ram Nath Kovind, an official statement said, setting in motion the process for constituting the 17th Lok Sabha.
The full Election Commission -- comprising Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra --called on the President and submitted a copy of the notification issued by the
EC containing names of the members, a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said.
While the EC notification sets in motion the constitution of a new Lok Sabha, the list given to the President enables him to formally initiate the government formation process.
Earlier in the day, the President dissolved the 16th Lok Sabha on the recommendation of the Union Cabinet.
On Saturday evening, the newly-elected MPs of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance are likely elect Narendra Modi as the alliance’s leader.
After this, a delegation of leaders of the BJP and its allies is expected to call on the President and convey to him their choice of Modi as prime minister, following which he will be invited to form the government.
The counting of votes in elections to the 17th Lok Sabha was taken up on May 23 and the BJP scored a resounding victory, winning 303 seats in the 543-member House. Its arch rival, Congress, managed on 52 seats.
Elections were held for 542 of the 543 seats. The election in Vellore Lok Sabha seat was cancelled by the EC citing abuse of money power. A fresh date is yet to be announced.
The President congratulated the Chief Election Commissioner and the other Election Commissioners on the successful completion of the electoral process in the largest democratic exercise in the human history.
On behalf of the entire country, the President lauded the efforts of the EC, public officials and security personnel in successfully completion a free and fair election, the statement said.
The President also commended hundreds of millions of voters who participated in the election process.
29% of those elected to LS have serious criminal cases — ADR
New Delhi, May 25 (IANS): As many as 159 candidates elected to the Lok Sabha this time have declared “serious” criminal cases against themselves, while 233 have shown criminal cases in their affidavits, according to an analysis by the National Election Watch (NEW) and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Moreover, 10 winning candidates have been convicted, the NEW and the ADR said in its analysis. They include five MPs from BJP -- Jagdambika Pal, Manoj Kishorbhai Kotak, Kailash Choudhary, Chhatar Singh Darbar and Rajbahadur Singh; four from the Congress -- Dean Kuriakose, T.N. Prathapan, K. Sudhakaran and V.K. Sreekandan, and a lone YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) MP Talari Rangaiah. The analysis, however, did not give details of the cases for which they were convicted.
At least 11 MPs have declared cases related to murder, the report said. They are: Horen Sing Bey, Nisith Pramanik, Ajay Kumar, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Chhatar Singh Darba (all from BJP), Atul Kumar Singh and Afzal Ansari (Bahujan Samaj Party), Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Congress), Udayanraje Bhonsle (Nationalist Congress Party), Kuruva Gorantla Madhav (YSRCP) and Naba Kumar Sarania (Independent) candidate.
Besides, 3 MPs -- Saumitra Khan (BJP), Hibi Eden (Congress) and Kuruva Gorantla Madhav (YSRCP) -- have cases related to crime against women, the analysis said.
A party wise break-up of winners having “serious” criminal cases against them has the BJP on top with 87 MPs, followed by Congress (19), Janata Dal-United (8), DMK (6) and Trinamool Congress (4), according to the analysis.
Regarding financial background, the analysis said that 88 per cent of the winners, which is 475 out of the 539 MPS, are crorepatis. The party wise break-up of crorepatis is as follows: BJP (265), Congress (43), DMK (22), Trinamool Congress (19), YSRCP (19).
According to the ADR, the three richest winners in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections are from the Congress. Topping the list is Nakul Nath, having assets worth over INR 660 crore, followed by H. Vasanthakumar (over INR 417 crore) and D.K. Suresh (over INR 338 crore).
As per the analysis, three winners with lowest assets are Goddeti Madhavi of the YSRCP with declared assets worth over INR 1 lakh, followed by BJD’s Chandrani Murmu (Rs three lakh plus) and Mahant Balak Nath of the BJP (INR three lakh plus).
According to the analysis, 128 elected MPs have declared their educational qualification to be between 5th and 12th pass while 392 (73 per cent) winners are graduate and above. Meanwhile, one winner has declared himself to be just literate and one illiterate.
The ADR statement said there are 77 women MPs (14 per cent) in the 17th Lok Sabha.
