12% of sitting Rajya Sabha MPs are billionaires, most from BJP, says election watchdog
According to the Association for Democratic Reforms, the most number of billionaire legislators in the Upper House are from Andhra Pradesh.
At least 27 out of 225 MPs in the Rajya Sabha have declared assets valuing more than Rs 100 crore, a report by non-governmental organisation Association for Democratic Reforms said.
In its report, the Association for Democratic Reforms and the National Election Watch have analysed and updated the criminal, financial and other background details of 225 out of 233 Rajya Sabha MPs.
The Association for Democratic Reforms said that three MPs have not been analysed as their affidavits were unavailable, while four seats of Jammu and Kashmir are undefined and one seat is vacant.
According to the report, the most billionaires MP in the Rajya Sabha are from Andhra Pradesh – five. They are followed by three each from Telangana and Maharashtra, two each from Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and one each from Delhi, Haryana, Kerala, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
Party-wise, six of the billionaires MPs are of the Bharatiya Janata Party, four each from the Congress and YSR Congress party, three each from the Aam Aadmi Party and Bharat Rashtra Samithi, two each from the Rashtriya Lok Dal and Independents, and three others from the Samajwadi Party, Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar) and Indian Union Muslim League.
In its report, the association also pointed out that 41 Rajya Sabha sitting MPs have declared serious criminal cases. Of them, 12 are from the BJP, eight from the Congress, and three each from the Rashtriya Lok Dal and YSR Congress, among others.
Association for Democratic Reforms defines serious crimes as non-bailable offences that attract a maximum punishment of five years and more. These are crimes related to assault, murder, kidnap and rape, as well as crimes against women and corruption cases.
Four Rajya Sabha sitting MPs have declared cases related to crimes against women. This includes Congress’ KC Venugopal who has declared a case related to rape from Rajasthan.