NEW DELHI: As per a report published by the National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), in which 229 out of the total 233 sitting Rajya Sabha MPs were analysed, it was found that 51 MPs had criminal cases against them.
The civil society groups did not analyse three parliamentarians, citing their affidavits were unavailable or badly scanned. The remaining one Rajya Sabha seat is from Bihar and has been vacant since December 2017.
The report based on the analysis of the parliamentarians' self-sworn affidavits shows that 51 (22%) Rajya Sabha MPs have declared criminal cases against themselves, while 20 (9%) of them have declared serious criminal cases.
One Shiv Sena MP from Maharashtra Dhoot Rajkumar Nandlal has even declared cases related to murder, while two MPs Gopal Narayan Singh (BJP) from Bihar and V. Muraleedharan (BJP) from Maharashtra have declared cases related to attempt to murder.
In a party-wise analysis, the report reveals that BJP has the highest number of MPs (14) with a criminal background, followed by the Congress (8) in the second. Four MPs from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), three MPs from Samajwadi Party (SP), and one MP from All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) have declared criminal cases.
Under serious criminal cases, five MPS are from the Congress, four are from the BJP, two are from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and one each from the SP and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
The report also revealed that 201 Rajya Sabha MPs have declared assets worth Rs 1 crore and above, out of which 84 hold assets worth Rs 10 crore or above.
The analysis was conducted on MPs after the Rajya Sabha elections were held.