As Tamil Nadu is weeks ahead of the crucial assembly polls in electing the new assembly, a report has shockingly displayed about the state of the current legislators and alarmed the voters on the importance of staying vigil and knowing the background of the candidates before casting the votes. The report has furnished the stunning fact that the current state assembly is filled with nearly one-third of the legislators who are facing criminal charges. 

The report published by the election watch-dog Association for Democratic Reforms - ADR had shown that at least 33% of the MLAs in the current Tamil Nadu assembly have criminal cases pending against them. The survey was done on the state of 204 sitting MLAs and 33% accounts for 68 MLAs of the 204 and these 68 legislators have the tag of criminal cases. Of these 68 MLAs, 38 MLAs or 19% in total have serious criminal cases pending against them and if they got convicted, they would be awarded a five-year prison sentence. 

Tamil Nadu has 234 assembly seats and ADR had done its studies on 204 legislators as four seats are vacant and the details of 26 left out MLAs couldn't be analyzed due to lack of access to properly scanned documents to ascertain their backgrounds. The ADR had asserted that the analysis is based on the affidavits submitted by candidates prior to the 2016 assembly elections and by-polls held during the tenure of the current assembly. 

The report revealed that of these 38 MLAs with serious criminal cases, DMK has more pending cases under serious criminal charges as 22 MLAs were from DMK, 13 from the ruling ADMK, two from the Congress party, and one independent legislator. While eight MLAs have cases related to attempt to murder, two have cases related to crimes against women. The ADR report had also said that at least 157 MLAs have declared assets worth more than a crore, at an average of 6.05 crore. 

The report said while the average asset of 109 ADMK MLAs was Rs 3.49 crore and it was Rs 9.49 crore for DMK members and all the top three richest MLAs were from the DMK. According to a news agency, Tara Krishnaswamy, cofounder of Shakti, urged the voters to be more aware and analyze their candidates before casting the vote and said that India must implement the system like in Europe where the countries have third-party websites dedicated to bringing out in-depth information about poll candidates. 

She added that this system will help the voters decide whom they want to vote for and elect as their representative. According to reports ADR had collaborated with TNEW and has analyzed the details of 204 legislators and the report was released on Wednesday and it had shocked the state to know that the current assembly has a key number of legislators with criminal cases pending against them. 

Tamil Nadu will go to the single-phase poll on April 6 and the results would be announced on May 2. Let's take a look at the election schedule in Tamil Nadu. 

• Single-phase election for all the 234 constituencies
• Issue of Notification - March 12th, 2021.
• Last date of nomination - March 19th, 2021.
• Last date of scrutiny - March 20th, 2021.
• Last date for withdrawing nomination - March 22nd, 2021
• Date of Election - April 6th, 2021. 
• Date of counting - May 2nd, 2021, during which the winner will be declared.