40% Newly Elected Rajya Sabha Members Have Criminal Cases Against Them: Survey

The survey was conducted by National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Rights (ADR)

Photo used for representation.

(Photo: The Quint)

A survey of the newly elected Rajya Sabha members conducted by the National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Rights (ADR) was released on Thursday, 16 June, which stated that 40 percent of the newly elected members have declared criminal cases, while 12 percent have serious criminal cases pending against them.

A joint statement issued by the National Election Watch and ADR clarified that the survey report has been prepared based on the affidavits filed by the different candidates who contested the recent Rajya Sabha polls to fill the vacant seats from different states in the Upper House.

"Out of the 57 MPs analysed, 23 (40 percent) have declared criminal cases against them, while 12 (21 percent) have serious criminal cases, including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, theft etc, lodged against their names," the joint survey report said.

According to the report, one newly elected Rajya Sabha member has declared case of murder against his name, while one has declared case of attempt to murder against his name. One newly elected MP has declared a case of crime against women against his name.

The joint survey report has also given party-wise and state-wise break-up of the newly elected Rajya Sabha members with criminal cases.

According to it, nine out of 22 MPs from Bhartiya Janata Party BJP, four out of nine MPs from Congress, two MPs each from Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and one MP each from Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Samajwadi Party, Shiv Sena (SHS) along with an Independent member have declared criminal cases against their names.

In the state-wise category, six out of 11 MPs from Uttar Pradesh, four out of six from Maharashtra, three out of six from Tamil Nadu, four out of five from Bihar, both MPs from Telangana, one out of four from Andhra Pradesh, one out of two from Chhattisgarh, one out of four from Rajasthan and one out of two from Haryana have declared criminal cases against them.

Millionaire Members

According to the report, 53 (93 percent) of the newly elected Rajya Sabha members are millionaires. The top three richest candidates are TRS's Bandi Partha Saradhi with total assets of Rs 5,300 crore, Independent Kapil Sibal with total assets of Rs 608 crore, and AAP's Vikramjit Singh from Punjab with total assets of Rs 498 crore.

The average assets value of the newly elected MPs is Rs 154.27 crore.

Party-wise, 19 of 22 MPs from BJP, all the nine MPs from Congress, all four MPs from YSRCP, all three MPs from DMK, all three MPs from BJD, both the MPs from TRS, AIADMK, RJD and Independent members, one out of two MPs from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and one MP each from Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Samajwadi Party (SP), SHS, and JD(U) have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.