About 100 crorepatis in Rajya Sabha; Rahul Bajaj richest

About 100 Rajya Sabha members have declared their assets worth more than Rupees one crore with independent Parliamentarian from Maharashtra Rahul Bajaj being the richest.

About 100 Rajya Sabha members have declared their assets worth more than Rupees one crore with independent Parliamentarian from Maharashtra Rahul Bajaj being the richest.

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According to an analysis by an NGO, renowned industrialist Bajaj has declared his movable and immovable assets worth over Rs 300 crore followed by Janta Dal (Secular) MP M A M Ramaswamy (Karnataka) and T Subramani Reddy of Congress (Andhra Pradesh) who have declared assets of more than Rs 278 crore and Rs 272 crore respectively.

Samajwadi Party's Jaya Bachchan from Uttar Pradesh and expelled SP leader Amar Singh have admitted wealth of Rs 215 crore and Rs 79 crore respectively, the data said.

The analysis was done by Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW), an umbrella body of about 1,200 NGOs worldwide, after analysing self-sworn affidavits filed by 219 members at the time of their elections to Rajya Sabha by exercising Right to Information Act.

According to the data, a total of 98 MPs have declared their assets worth crores and 37 MPs have pending criminal cases against them.

Congress has the highest of seven MPs with pending criminal cases followed by six from BJP and four each from BSP and Shiv Sena.

The highest of 33 crorepatis are from Congress, 21 from BJP and seven from Samajwadi Party, it said.

The association also made an analysis of education details of the members. Out of the 219 Rajya Sabha MPs, whose affidavits were analysed, 179 are graduates, 18 are class XII qualified, 11 are high school passed and two have attended school only till class eight.

Commenting on the analysis, L C Jain, former member Planning Commission and member of national election watch said, "The entry of people with criminal cases is an assault on the dignity of the Upper House."