Criminal cases against 17 percent of Rajya Sabha MPs

Nearly 17 percent of current Rajya Sabha members have criminal cases against them, according to a report compiled by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW).

The report also shows over two-thirds of Rajya Sabha members (67 percent) are multi- millionaires.

In a report based on analysis of 227 out of 245 Rajya Sabha members - minus the 12 nominated members and seats lying vacant, the ADR says 38 members have declared criminal cases against them, out which 15 (seven percent) face serious criminal cases.

While Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) S.P.S. Baghel from Uttar Pradesh has a case of attempt to murder against him, Congress' Parvez Hashmi from Delhi faces charges of voluntarily causing grievous hurt.

Thiru T.Rathinavel of AIADMK from Tamil Nadu is accused of electoral offence.

The average asset of the 227 Rajya Sabha MPs analyzed is Rs.201.7 million (20.17 crore).

Among major parties, the average asset of Rajya Sabha MPs from Congress is Rs.167.39 million (16.74 crore), for Bharatiya Janata Party MPs, it is Rs 85.1 million (8.51 crore), for BSP, Rs 138.2 million (13.82 crore), and of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), it is Rs 3.96 million (39.65 lakh).

A total of 67 percent members are multi-millionaires.

Rajya Sabha MP with maximum assets is Mahendra Prasad of Janata Dal-United from Bihar with assets worth Rs.6.83 billion (683.56 crore), followed by Vijaya Mallya, Independent member from Karnataka with Rs.6.15 billion (615.42 crore), and Samajawadi Party's Jaya Bachchan from Uttar Pradesh with assets worth Rs.4.93 billion (493.86 crore).

Only nine MPs have declared assets worth less than Rs.20 lakh.

BJP's Anil Dave from Madhya Pradesh has declared lowest assets worth Rs.2.75 lakh followed by Trinamool Congress' Mohammed Nadimul from West Bengal with Rs.3.19 lakh, and Shymal Chakraborty of CPI-M from West Bengal with assets worth Rs.5.47 lakh.

At least 32 (14 percent) MPs have not declared their PAN details.

A total of 12 members of Rajya Sabha are nominated by the President and are not mandated under current laws to submit their affidavits to the Election Commission.

There are four seats vacant right now (two in Uttar Pradesh, one in Andhra Pradesh and one nominated seat), and three affidavits were either badly scanned or had pages are missing (Nand Kumar Sai from Chhattisgarh, Aayanur Manjunatha from Karnataka (both BJP) and Mohammed Adeeb, an Independent member from Uttar Pradesh).