14% MPs in Rajya Sabha are billionaires; BJP tops at 9

Out of the 225 sitting Rajya Sabha MPs, 31 or 14% are billionaires, with 9 out of 90 members of parliament from BJP being the highest, the data released by think tanks Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) on 225 out of 233 Rajya Sabha MPs shows.

Party-wise, 4 out of 28 MPs from the Indian National Congress (INC), 5 out of 11 MPs from YSRCP, 2 out of 10 MPs from AAP, 3 out of 4 MPs from TRS and 2 out of 6 MPs from RJD have assets valued over ₹100 crore.

States with the highest number of billionaires in the Rajya Sabha are MPs from Andhra Pradesh (5 out of 11 MPs ); 4 out of 7 from Telangana; 4 out of 18 from Maharashtra; 4 out of 31 from Uttar Pradesh; 2 out of 7 from Punjab; 1 out of 5 MPs from Haryana and 2 out of 11 from Madhya Pradesh.

In terms of average assets, the average assets of Rajya Sabha sitting MPs are ₹87.12 crore. Party-wise, the average assets per MP for 90 BJP MPs analysed stands at ₹37.34 crore; 28 INC MPs have average assets of ₹40.70 crore, 13 AITC MPs at ₹10.25, 11 YSRCP MPs at ₹357.68 crore, 4 TRS MPs at ₹1,383.74 crore, 10 DMK MPs at ₹6.37 crore and 10 AAP MPs at ₹114.81 crore.

The total assets of 225 sitting MPs are ₹19,602 crore, with the assets for 90 BJP MPs at ₹3,360 crore, for 28 INC MPs analysed is ₹1,139 crore, for 11 YSRCP MPs at ₹3,934 crore, for 4 TRS MPs analysed at ₹5,534 crore and 10 AAP MPs have total assets worth ₹1,148 crore.

7 MPs from Telangana have the highest assets worth ₹5,821 crore, followed by 11 MPs from Andhra at ₹3,934 crore and 31 MPs from UP at ₹3,088 crore.

In terms of criminal cases, 75 or 33% of Rajya Sabha sitting MPs have declared criminal cases against themselves. Of this, 40 or 18% have serious criminal cases registered against them.

Two have declared cases related to murder i.e. IPC Section 302; 4 with declared cases related to attempt to murder i.e. IPC Section 307.

Among all the Rajya Sabha MPs with criminal cases, 21 out of 90 are from BJP; 14 out of 28 are from the Congress; 5 of 13 are from AITC; 4 of 6 from RJD; 4 of 5 from CPI(M); 3 of 10 from AAP; 4 of 11 from YSRCP and 2 of 10 from DMK.

State-wise, MPs with criminal cases include 11 out of 18 from Maharashtra; 8 out of 16 from Bihar; 9 out of 31 from Uttar Pradesh; 6 out of 18 from Tamil Nadu; 6 out of 9 from Kerala; and 7 out of 16 from West Bengal have declared criminal cases against them.