88 MLAs in TN facing criminal charges

In the recently concluded Tamil Nadu State Assembly elections, 88 out of 144 winners facing criminal charges won the polls against their runner-up having clean background, reveals the analysis of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Tamil Nadu Election Watch (TEW). The report is based on analysis of vote share for all 234 constituencies in the Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections, 2021 which was held on April 6.

Among these 88 winners, two have won with more than 45 per cent margin of victory. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's (DMK) Udhayanidhi Stalin from Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni constituency won with 50.47 per cent margin of victory. However, 541 (38 per cent) out of 144 winners with declared criminal cases have won with a vote share of 50 per cent and above.

As per the analysis, 36 out of 201 'crorepati' (millionaire) winners have won against non-crorepati runners-up. Among these 36 winners, two have won with more than 40 per cent margin of victory, including Udhayanidhi Stalin, while 74 (37 per cent) out of the 201 crorepati winners have won with a vote share of 50 per cent and above.

Among the 234 winners, 12 are women and all of them won with 34 per cent and above of vote share in their constituencies. Of these women winners, DMK candidate Sivagama Sundari K from Krishnarayapuram constituency has won with the highest vote share of 53.37 per cent in her constituency and has a 17.48 per cent margin of victory.

Out of 79 re-elected winners, none have won with less than 35 per cent of vote share in their respective constituencies. A total of 33 (42 per cent) have won with more than 50 per cent of vote share. 26 (33 per cent) re-elected winners have won with less than 10 per cent of margin of victory whereas eight have won with more than 30 per cent of margin of victory.

The winners of the Tamil Nadu State Assembly elections this year, the analysis said, won by an average of 48.37 per cent of total votes polled. In the 2016 elections, winners won by an average of 45.67 per cent of total votes polled. As many as 85 (36 per cent) winners won with 50 per cent and above of the total votes polled in their constituency while 149(64 per cent) winners won with less than 50 per cent of the total votes polled in their constituency.

Eight winners have won with a margin of victory of less than 1,000 votes and three winners have won with more than 45 per cent of margin of victory, mentions the analysis. Informing about the use of NOTA button, which was instated by the Election Commission of India in 2013 to give the voters an option of rejecting all the candidates in their constituency, the analysis said out of 4,62,36,492 votes polled in Tamil Nadu Assembly this year, 3,45,538 (0.75 per cent) were polled for NOTA.