Criminal cases in Parliament: 40% Newly Elected RS MPs have Criminal Cases

 

Criminal cases in Parliament: Relevance

• GS 2: Parliament and State legislatures—structure, functioning, conduct of business, powers & privileges and issues arising out of these.

 

Criminalisation of politics: Context

• According to a report released by ADR-National Election Watch, around 40% of the newly elected Rajya Sabha members have criminal charges against them.

 

 

40 percent criminal cases in Rajya Sabha: Key points

• The report was based on the analysis of self-sworn affidavits of all 57 MPs who were elected to Rajya Sabha this month.
• Out of the 57 MPs analysed, 23 MPs have declared criminal cases against themselves.
• A total of 12 MPs have declared “serious criminal cases”.
• Six of these Rajya Sabha MPs have been elected from Uttar Pradesh, four each from Maharashtra and Bihar, three Tamil Nadu, two Telangana and one each from Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Haryana.
• 53 of the 57 elected MPs are crorepati where TRS MP Bandi Partha Saradhi on the top of the list with his total assets being worth over Rs 1,500 crore.

 

MPs with Criminal cases in India

• According to the ADR 2021 report, the share of MPs with declared criminal cases against them has been increasing in the last decade.
• ADR had analysed the 543 winners of 2009 Lok Sabha elections, where it had reported that 162 (30%) had declared criminal cases against them, with 76 (14%) having serious criminal cases against them.
• The share of MPs with criminal and serious criminal cases increased to 43% and 29%, according to an analysis of 539 winners in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
• More importantly, in 2019, candidates with declared criminal cases against them had a 5% chance of winning compared to 4.7% for candidates without such cases against them.
• In 2019, while 39% of the BJP’s winning candidates had a criminal case against them, the number was 57% for the Congress, 43% for the DMK and 41% for the All India Trinamool Congress.
• Also, 84% of the selected candidates have self-declared assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore.

 

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