About a quarter of the sitting Rajya Sabha members have declared criminal cases against themselves, according to an analysis of their self-sworn affidavits by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) released on Wednesday.
With three seats vacant and Kerala MP K.K. Ragesh’s affidavit being unavailable, the ADR report said an analysis of 229 of the 233 Rajya Sabha seats that represent the States and Union Territories showed that 54 MPs or 24% had declared criminal cases.
Out of the 229 MPs, which included the newly-elected representatives taking the oath on Wednesday, 28 or 12% had declared serious criminal cases. The report stated that 14 of 77 BJP MPs and eightof 40 Congress MPs had declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
The ADR analysis found that 203 of the 229 MPs or 89% of those analysed had declared assets over ₹1crore, including 90% of the BJP MPs, 93% of the Congress MPs, 100% of the AIADMK MPs and 69% of the Trinamool Congress MPs.
Highest declared assets
Janata Dal (United) MP from Bihar Mahendra Prasad had the highest declared assets at ₹4,078 crore, followed by YSRCP MP from Andhra Pradesh Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy, who declared assets worth ₹2,577 crore, and actor-turned-politician, Samajwadi Party MP from Uttar Pradesh Jaya Bachchan who declared assets over ₹1,001 crore.
The ADR report said BJP MP from Manipur Maharaja Sanajaoba Leishemba declared ₹5.48 lakh in assets, the lowest of the MPs analysed, followed by Aam Aadmi Party MP from Delhi Sanjay Singh, who declared ₹6.60 lakh in assets, and BJP MP from Jharkhand Samir Oraon, who declared ₹18.69 lakh.
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