About 100 Rajya Sabha members have declared that their assets are worth more than Rs. 1 crore, with independent Parliamentarian from Maharashtra Rahul Bajaj being the richest.
According to an analysis by a non-governmental organisation, Mr. Bajaj has declared his movable and immovable assets worth over Rs. 300 crore, followed by Janata Dal (Secular) M.A. M. Ramaswamy (Karnataka) and T. Subbarami Reddy of the Congress (Andhra Pradesh), who have declared assets of more than Rs. 278 crore and Rs. 272 crore respectively.
The Samajwadi Party's Jaya Bachchan from Uttar Pradesh and expelled SP leader Amar Singh have admitted wealth of Rs. 215 crore and Rs. 79 crore respectively, the data said.
The analysis was done by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the National Election Watch (NEW), an umbrella body of about 1,200 NGOs worldwide, after analysing self-sworn affidavits filed by 219 members at the time of their election to the Rajya Sabha by exercising the Right to Information Act.
According to the data, a total of 98 MPs have declared their assets worth crores and 37 have criminal cases against them. The Congress has the highest of seven MPs with pending criminal cases, followed by six from the BJP and four each from the BSP and the Shiv Sena.
Interestingly, the CPI's D. Raja from Tamil Nadu and Saman Pathak of the CPI(M) from West Bengal have declared zero assets. CPI(M) parliamentarian Brinda Karat from West Bengal has declared assets worth Rs. 1.74 lakh and Revolutionary Socialist Party's Abani Roy (West Bengal) Rs. 72,000.
The highest of 33 crorepatis are from the Congress, 21 from the BJP and seven from the SP, it said.
