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Fewer women, older leaders and a BJP billionaires club| How the next Delhi Assembly looks like
The 2025 Delhi Assembly elections revealed a significant shift: a decline in young and female MLAs, alongside an increase in billionaires.
The new Assembly of Delhi has elected fewer women MLAs than the last assembly. The MLAs in the new house are also older than before, an analysis of elected leaders reveals.
The new assembly has five women MLAs compared to 8 legislators in the outgoing assembly.
Of the 699 candidates who contested Delhi Assembly elections held on February 5 this year, 96 were women. In the 2020 Assembly polls, 76 of the 672 candidates were women.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the Delhi Election 2025, winning 48 seats against the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) 22 seats. The results of assembly elections were announced on February 8.
The share of young MLAs has also fallen compared to the outgoing assembly. In the new assembly, 13 per cent of members are in the 23-40 age group, according to non-profit PRS Legislative Research. In 2020, the number of MLAs in this age bracket was 23 per cent, while it was 41 per cent in 2015.
The PRS analysis also said that the number of members over 70 has gone up from 1 per cent in 2020 to 4 per cent in 2025.
Fewer ‘criminals’, more billionaires
Out of the 70 winning candidates, 31(44 per cent) have declared criminal cases against themselves, according to analysis by election watchdog, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). In 2020, 43(61 per cent) MLAs had declared criminal cases against themselves.
ADR, which analysed the affidavits submitted by all 699 candidates who contested the assembly elections, said the number of winning candidates with serious criminal cases remained a concern.
The analysis found that 17 newly-elected candidates were facing serious criminal cases, including those related to attempted murder and crimes against women. In the 2020 election, 37 candidates who had emerged victorious declared serious criminal cases.
Out of the 70 winning candidates analysed, three are billionaires. In Delhi assembly elections 2020, only one MLA was a billionaire, ADR said.
All three wealthiest billionaire lawmakers are from the BJP – Karnail Singh with assets of ₹259.67 crore from Shakur Basti, Manjinder Singh Sirsa with ₹248.85 crore from Rajouri Garden, and Parvesh Verma with ₹115.63 crore from New Delhi seat.
The total assets of 70 winning candidates are ₹1,542 crore. The average of assets per winning candidate in the Delhi Elections 2024 is is ₹22.04 crore. The average of assets per MLA in the Delhi Assembly Elections 2020 was ₹ 14.29 crore.
A party-wise breakdown shows that 16 of the BJP's 48 MLAs and 15 of AAP's 22 lawmakers have criminal cases against their names.
Seven MLAs from the BJP and 10 from AAP face serious criminal charges.
According to the analysis, 64 per cent of the new lawmakers hold graduate degrees or above while 33 per cent declared their academic qualifications to be between Class 5 and Class 12.
Who will be the next Delhi CM?
Names doing rounds for the top post include Parvesh Verma, a Jat leader who emerged as a giant killer by defeating former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal from New Delhi seat in the elections.
Vijender Gupta from Baniya community who won from Rohini, Arvinder Singh Lovely who won from Gandhi Nagar, Raj Kumar Chauhan, a Dalit leader who won from Mangol Puri, Shikha Roy, a Thakur, who defeated AAP minister Saurabh Bharadwaj from Greater Kailash and Satish Upadhyay, a Brahmin, who defeated Somnath Bharti from Malviya Nagar, are among the other top contenders for the Chief Minister's post.
The new Assembly has elected fewer women MLAs than the last assembly.
(With PTI inputs)
Key Takeaways
- The representation of young MLAs in Delhi’s Assembly has decreased significantly.
- The number of women MLAs has dropped from 8 to 5, indicating a concerning trend in gender representation.
- The rise of billionaires in the Assembly raises questions about wealth inequality among lawmakers.
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Business NewsElectionsFewer women, older leaders and a BJP billionaires club| How the next Delhi Assembly looks like
First Published:10 Feb 2025, 12:22 PM IST
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