The members of Upper House of the Parliament are growing richer. More than 50 percent of the Rajya Sabha members are crorepatis, says a report released on Tuesday by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

“A total of 98 Rajya Sabha MPs out of analyzed 183 Rajya Sabha MPs, or 54 per cent, are crorepatis,” says the report.
The report also found out that amongst major parties, 65 percent of Indian National Congress (INC) Rajya Sabha MPs are crorepatis, whereas 53 percent of BJP Rajya Sabha MPs are crorepatis.

Rahul Bajaj is the richest Rajya Sabha member with assets of Rs 300 crores followed by M.A.M. Ramaswamy of JD (S) (Rs 278 crores) from Karnataka. The poorest Rajya Sabha members are D. Raja of CPI, who's from Tamil Nadu, and Saman Pathak of CPI(M) from West Bengal. Both these members have shown their assets as zero. An earlier ADR report had revealed that the current Lok Sabha has 315 crorepatis out of 543 MPs (58 per cent).
Out of 219 MPs in the current Rajya Sabha, 37 MPs have criminal cases pending against them, says the report. In fact, 17 percent of the current Rajya Sabha have in their affidavits declared they have criminal cases against them.

The report also says that 12 MPs (out of 219, i.e. 5%) declared serious criminal cases pending against them, which include attempt to murder, kidnapping, abduction, voluntary causing hurt by dangerous weapons etc.
Among those who have serious criminal cases against them, “Kamal Akhtar (SP) from UP and Ram Chandra Singh (CPI) from West Bengal have attempt to murder cases pending against them and Azaj Ali (JD(U)) from Bihar has pending case of kidnapping and abduction.”
This figure, however, is lower than the corresponding statistic in Lok Sabha, where 14 percent (76 MPs) of the 543 MPs have serious criminal cases pending against them.

The Indian National Congress tops the chart among parties who have most number of criminal cases pending against them. “The INC has 7 out of 67, BJP has 6 out of 45 and SP has 3 out of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs with criminal cases pending against them,” the report further points out.
Among states, Uttar Pradesh has sent 8 out of 31 MPs having criminal cases pending against them. The UP is followed by Maharashtra with 6 MPs out of 18 MPs having pending criminal cases.
As the deadlock on the women’s bill continues, the report shows that the Rajya Sabha has abysmally low women members. The figures show that only 21 (9 percent) of all current Rajya Sabha members are women.