MP says Rajya Sabha seats for sale

Rajya Sabha member from Haryana and Congress leader Birender Singh made a startling disclosure Monday that certain people were spending Rs.100 crore to get into the upper house of parliament.

The Congress MP said that he knew not one but 20 people attempting to do this.

"Not one, but I will give you the names of 20 (such) people," Singh said while addressing a gathering in in Yamunanagar town in Haryana Sunday.

Singh was a Congress national general secretary till recently and was tipped to become a union minister in the last cabinet expansion. However, but his name was taken off the list at the last minute.

He told the gathering that he had met a Rajya Sabha member who said he had a budget of Rs.100 crore to get into the upper house.

"He told me that his budget to become a Rajya Sabha member was Rs.100 crore. He said that his work was done in Rs.80 crore and he saved Rs.20 crore," Singh said.

Singh refused to name the MP. He questioned the fate of politics if more such people entered the Rajya Sabha.

"People who will spend Rs.100 crore to enter the Rajya Sabha, will they ever think about this poor country?" he told the gathering.

"They establish themselves there (Rajya Sabha) and then become part of the deals happening there," Singh said.