10 Key Findings of ADR Report on Rajya Sabha MPs

Hyderabad: Of the 225 sitting Rajya Sabha MPs, 33 per cent have declared criminal cases and 14 per cent are billionaires, reveals a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW). The report also states that 40 MPs have serious criminal cases against them and the average assets of the sitting parliamentarians is Rs 87.12 crore.

The report has been prepared based on the affidavits submitted by the candidates before the elections and by-polls. It includes 225 of the 233 Rajya Sabha MPs with one seat from Maharashtra being vacant and four from Jammu and Kashmir being undefined. The affidavits of three MPs were not available for analysis.

Several interesting factors have been revealed in the recently published report.

1. Seventy-five sitting Rajya Sabha MPs of the 225 MPs have declared criminal cases against them with 40 (18 percent) MPs having declared serious criminal cases.
2. Of the 40 MPs with serious criminal cases, 2 MPs have cases related to murder under section 302 of the IPC and 4 have attempt to murder cases against them under section 307 of the IPC.
3. The party-wise analysis reveals that 21 of 90 MPs from BJP, 14 of 28 MPs from Congress and 5 of 13 MPs from All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) have criminal charges against them. This means, 23 per cent of BJP, 50 per cent of Congress and 38 per cent of AITC MPs have such charges against themselves.
4. 4 out of 6 (67 per cent) Rajya Sabha MPs from Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), 4 of 5 (80 per cent) MPs from CPI(M), 3 of 10 (30 per cent) from AAP, 4 of 11 (36 per cent) from YSRCP and 2 of 10 (20 per cent) from DMK have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
5. On the figure of sitting parliamentarians with serious criminal cases, there are 10 MPs from BJP, 9 from Congress, 3 from AITC, 2 from RJD, 2 from CPI(M), 1 from AAP, 3 from YSRCP and 1 from DMK.
6. In the state-wise record, 11 out of 18 (61 per cent) Rajya Sabha MPs from Maharashtra, 8 of 16 (50 per cent) MPs from Bihar, 9 of 31 (29 per cent) from Uttar Pradesh, 6 of 18 (33 per cent) from Tamil Nadu, 6 of 9 (67 per cent) from Kerala and 7 of 16 (44 per cent) from West Bengal have declared criminal cases against themselves.
7. Coming to the assets owned by the sitting Rajya Sabha MPs, the average asset holding of the MPs is Rs 87.12 crore. 93 MPs have above Rs 10 crore, 34 have Rs 5 to 1 crore, 72 MPs have Rs 1 to 5 crore.
8. A total of 31 MPs (14 per cent) are billionaires. The total assets of the 225 sitting MPs is Rs 19,602 crore.
9. The party-wise analysis says, 9 (10 per cent) MPs from BJP, 4 (14 per cent) from INC, 5 (45 per cent) from YSRCP, and 2 (20 per cent) from AAP have declared assets valued at more than Rs 100 crore.
10. Giving an account of the state-wise figures, 5 MPs from Andhra Pradesh, 4 from Telangana, 4 from Maharashtra, 4 from Uttar Pradesh, 2 from Punjab, 1 from Haryana and 2 from Madhya Pradesh have declared assets worth more than Rs 100 crores.

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