The millionaires of Rajya Sabha

A recent study shows that more than 50 per cent of the MPs from the Upper House are crorepatis

It is a place frequented by the rich and the famous. No we are not discussing a high-end club or a Bollywood bash.u00a0 This is the seat of India's democracy.

u00a0In a first of its kind study by an NGO, National Election Watch (NEW) it has been discovered that more than half of our Rajya Sabha MPs are crorepatis, and 17 per cent of the members have criminal cases pending against them.

Fifty four per cent of the MPs that were part of the study are millionaires. Compare this to the Lok Sabha, where 315 out of 543 MPs make the cut.u00a0 About 65 per cent of Congress Rajya Sabha MPs are crorepatis, whereas 53 per cent of BJP MPs have managed the feat.

Uttar Pradesh MPs score the highest in this regard (17 out of 26, i.e. 65 per cent). Rahul Bajaj, not surprisingly, leads the pack of crorepati MPs with assets worth Rs 300 crore. Dr Ramasamy from Karnataka comes in second with Rs 278 crore in his kitty.

Communist MPs it seems have little interest in materialism. D Raja from the CPI and Saman Pathak from the CPI (M) have declared that they possess no assets. Among other Left leaders, Abani Roy has declared Rs 72,000 while Brinda Karat has shown Rs 1.74 lakh. Apart from this, 37 MPs in the Rajya Sabha have declared criminal cases pending against them. Out of these 12 MPs face serious charges.

Moneywise...the winners are