Of the 514 outgoing Lok Sabha MPs, 225 (44 per cent) of them were facing criminal cases and 5 per cent, mostly from the BJP and Congress, were billionaires having assets exceeding ₹100 crore, poll rights body Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) said.
The ADR’s findings compiled in its report is based on scrutiny of self-sworn affidavits of sitting MPs. It revealed that 29 per cent of Lok Sabha MPs faced serious criminal charges such as murder, attempt to murder, crimes against women, kidnapping, and spreading communal disharmony. Among them, five out of nine who faced murder charges are from the BJP.
Similarly, 21 of 28 MPs accused of attempt to murder, are from the BJP, the ADR report pointed out. While 16 MPs were booked for alleged crimes against women, including three for rape charges.
Fifty per cent of MPs facing criminal charges belong to states, including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Himachal Pradesh.
The number of MPs having criminal cases have slightly reduced if compared with its report of May 2019. In that, the ADR had stated that out of the 539 winners analysed in Lok Sabha 2019, 233 declared criminal cases against themselves. This is an increase of 44 per cent in the number of MPs with declared criminal cases since 2009, the ADR had disclosed then.
Financial background
The ADR report also talks about financial background of the parliamentarians. The BJP and Congress lead the pack of rich MPs, the ADR analysis stated, while other parties too had their share in the lot.
The top three MPs who have the highest declared assets are Nakul Nath, who is son of former Congress Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath, DK Suresh, brother of Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivkumar, and Kanumuru Raghu Rama Krishna Raju from Andhra Pradesh (Independent). The ADR stated that their assets run into hundreds of crores.
On their educational background, the report said that a significant majority of 73 per cent of the lawmakers are either graduate or have higher educational qualifications. Among them, only 15 per cent are women MPs.