Press Release: Kerala Assembly Election 2026: Analysis of Criminal Background, Financial, Education, Gender and other details of Winning Candidates

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May 7, 2026, 8:48:33 AM (5 days ago) May 7

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Press Release

Date: May 7, 2026

Dear Friends,

Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Kerala Election Watch have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 135 out of 140 winning candidates in the Kerala 2026 Assembly Elections.

The full reports in English and Hindi can be accessed here: https://adrindia.org/content/Kerala-Assembly-Elections-2026-Criminal-and-Financial-background-details-of-Winning-Candidates

Summary and Highlights

Figure: Final Party Position

Criminal Background

Winning Candidates with Criminal Cases: Out of the 135 winning candidates analysed in 2026 114(84%) winning candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. Out of 136 MLAs analysed during Kerala Assembly elections in 2021, 96(71%) MLAs had declared criminal cases against themselves.

Winning Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 77(57%) winning candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. Out of 136 MLAs analysed during Kerala Assembly elections in 2021, 37 (27%) MLAs had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Figure: Comparison of declared criminal cases of MLAs of 2011, 2016, 2021 and winning candidates 2026

Winning Candidates with Declared Cases Related to Murder: 1 winning candidate has declared a case related to murder (IPC Section-302) against himself.

Winning Candidates with Declared Cases Related to Attempt to Murder: 1 winning candidate has declared a case related to Attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) against himself.

Winning Candidates with Declared Cases Related to Crime Against Women: 3 winning candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. Out of 3 winning candidates, 1 winning candidate has declared case related to person committing rape repeatedly on the same woman (IPC Section- 376(2)(n)).

Party Wise Winning Candidates with Criminal Cases: 53(90%) out of 59 winning candidates from INC, 20(77%) out of 26 winning candidates from CPI(M), 20 (91%) out of 22 winning candidates from IUML, 5 (63%) out of 8 winning candidates from CPI, 6 (86%) out of 7 winning candidates from Kerala Congress, 3 (100%) out of 3 winning candidates from BJP, 3 (100%) out of 3 winning candidates from Revolutionary Socialist Party, 1 (100%) out of 1 winning candidate from Kerala Congress (Jacob), 1 (100%) out of 1 winning candidate from Revolutionary Marxist Party of India and 2 (50%) out of 4 Independent winning candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Party Wise Winning Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 44(75%) out of 59 winning candidates from INC, 10(38%) out of 26 winning candidates from CPI(M), 12 (55%) out of 22 winning candidates from IUML, 4 (57%) out of 7 winning candidates from Kerala Congress, 2 (67%) out of 3 winning candidates from BJP, 3 (100%) out of 3 winning candidates from Revolutionary Socialist Party, 1 (100%) out of 1 winning candidate from Kerala Congress (Jacob) and 1 (100%) out of 1 winning candidate from Revolutionary Marxist Party of India have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Winning Candidates with Criminal Cases

Financial Background

Crorepati Winning Candidates: Out of the 135 winning candidates analysed, 93 (69%) are crorepatis. Out of 136 MLAs analysed during Kerala assembly elections 2021, 75 (55%) MLAs were crorepati.

Figure: Percentage of Crorepati MLAs 2011, 2016, 2021 and Winning Candidates 2026

Party-wise crorepati winning candidates: 40(68%) out of 59 winning candidates from INC, 19(86%) out of 22 winning candidates from IUML, 14 (54%) out of 26 winning candidates from CPI(M), 7(100%) out of 7 winning candidates from Kerala Congress, 4(50%) out of 8 winning candidates from CPI, 2(67%) out of 3 winning candidates from Revolutionary Socialist Party, 2(67%) out of 3 winning candidates from BJP, 1(100%) out of 1 winning candidate from RJD, 1(100%) out of 1 winning candidate from Kerala Congress (Jacob) and 3(75%) out of 4 Independent winning candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore.

Figure: Party wise Percentage of Crorepati Winning Candidates

Share of Wealth Among Winning Candidates: The table given below shows the share of wealth among winning candidates in Kerala Assembly Elections, 2026:

Value of assets (Rs.)	No. of winning candidates	Percentage of winning candidates
Rs. 10 crores and above	15	11.11%
Rs. 5 crores to Rs. 10 crores	14	10.37%
Rs. 1 crore to Rs. 5 crores	64	47.41%
Rs. 20 lakhs Rs. 1 crore	38	28.15%
less than Rs. 20 lakhs	4	2.96%

Table: Share of Wealth Among winning candidates

Total Assets of Winning Candidates: The total assets of 135 winning candidates are Rs. 937 Crores.

Average Assets: The average of assets per winning candidate analysed in the Kerala Assembly Elections 2026 is Rs 6.94 Crores. The average of assets per MLA in the Kerala Assembly Elections 2021 was Rs 3.12 crore.

Figure: Comparison of Average Assets (Rs. in Crores) 2011, 2016, 2021 vs 2026

Party Wise Average Assets: The average assets per winning candidate for 59 INC winning candidates is Rs 3.79 Crores, 26 CPI(M) winning candidates have average assets of Rs 1.28 Crores, 22 IUML Winning candidates have average assets worth Rs 7.29 Crores, 8 CPI Winning candidates have average assets worth Rs 1.16 Crores, 7 Kerala Congress Winning candidates have average assets worth Rs 45.18 Crores, 3 BJP Winning candidates have average assets worth Rs 38.08 Crores, 3 Revolutionary Socialist Party Winning candidates have average assets worth Rs 8.76 Crores and 4 Independent Winning candidates have average assets of Rs. 6.99 crore.

High Asset Winning Candidates: The top three winning candidates with high assets are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Reji Cheriyan	Alappuzha	Kuttanad	Kerala Congress	8,91,36,084	2,10,05,00,000	2,18,96,36,084 218 Crore+	Y
2	Rajeev Chandrasekhar	Thiruvananthapuram	Nemom	BJP	96,91,87,627	15,07,20,000	1,11,99,07,627 111 Crore+	Y
3	Shibu Theckumpuram	Ernakulam	Kothamangalam	Kerala Congress	24,83,78,979	43,80,72,785	68,64,51,764 68 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three winning candidates with highest declared assets

Low Asset Winning Candidates: The details of three winning candidates with the lowest assets are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	A.D Thomas	Alappuzha	Alappuzha	INC	39,327	0	39,327 39 Thou+	Y
2	K Binimon	Kottayam	Vaikom (SC)	INC	3,53,593	3,00,000	6,53,593 6 Lacs+	Y
3	Ullas Kovur	Kollam	Kunnathur (SC)	Revolutionary Socialist Party	2,95,000	4,00,000	6,95,000 6 Lacs+	Y

Table: Three winning candidates with lowest declared assets

Winning Candidates with High Liabilities: 109 winning candidates have declared liabilities. The details of the top 3 winning candidates are as follows:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Total Assets (Rs)	Liabilities (Rs)	Disputed liabilities (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Rajeev Chandrasekhar	Thiruvananthapuram	Nemom	BJP	1,11,99,07,627 111 Crore+	1,09,01,77,526 109 Crore+	0	Y
2	Shibu Theckumpuram	Ernakulam	Kothamangalam	Kerala Congress	68,64,51,764 68 Crore+	# 92,09,54,987 92 Crore+	500 5 Hund+	Y
3	Mani C Kappen	Kottayam	Pala	IND	21,68,04,053 21 Crore+	7,25,39,828 7 Crore+	0	Y

Table: Top three winning candidates with high liabilities

Winning Candidates with High Income as Declared in ITR*: The table below shows 3 winning candidates who have declared highest income in their Income Tax Returns.

S.No.	Name	Party Name	Constituency	District	Total Assets (Rs)	Self Source of Income	Spouse's Source of Income	The financial year for which the last income tax return has been filed by winning candidates	Total income shown by winning candidates in ITR (Self+Spouse+Dependent) (Rs)	Self-income shown by winning candidates in ITR (Rs)
1	Shibu Theckumpuram	Kerala Congress	Kothamangalam	Ernakulam	68,64,51,764 68 Crore+	Business	Business	2024-2025	8,51,81,530 8 Crore+	5,54,47,080 5 Crore+
2	Rajeev Chandrasekhar	BJP	Nemom	Thiruvananthapuram	1,11,99,07,627 111 Crore+	Income from Salary, House Property, Business, Capital Gains and from other sources	Income from Salary, Business and from other sources	2024-2025	1,53,41,801 1 Crore+	92,91,633 92 Lacs+
3	Ramesh Pisharody	INC	Palakkad	Palakkad	4,51,72,000 4 Crore+	As a Cine Artist & Business	As a Business Partner	2024-2025	1,00,15,350 1 Crore+	88,81,370 88 Lacs+

Table: Top 3 winning candidates with high income as declared in income tax returns

*Total income includes income of self, spouse and dependents

Other Background Details

Education Details of Winning Candidates: 31(23%) winning candidates have declared their educational qualification between 8^th pass and 12^th pass while 98 (73%) winning candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate and above. 5 winning candidates are Diploma holders and 1 winning candidate has declared himself to be literate.

Age Details of Winning Candidates: 15(11%) winning candidates have declared their age to be between 25 and 40 years while 79 (59%) winning candidates have declared their age to be between 41 and 60 years. There are 40 (30%) winning candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years. One winning candidate has declared his age as 82 years.

Gender Details of Winning Candidates: Out of 135 winning candidates analysed, 9 (7%) winning candidates are women. In 2021, out of 136 MLAs analysed, 11 (8%) MLAs were women.