25 per cent Rajya Sabha candidates have criminal cases pending against them
The Upper House of the Parliament, the Rajya Sabha is considered to be the house of `elders', a place for taking intellectual discussions with the presence of `highly educated' people and social activists.
This
reflects with the candidates presently contesting in the Rajya Sabha
elections from various states. As many as 16, almost 25 per cent, of
the total candidates have declared criminal cases pending against
them. Among them, half of the candidates, or 13 per cent, have
declared serious criminal cases against them such as kidnapping,
attempt to murder, robbery etc.
With
regards to money power, among the 63 candidates analysed, a maximum
number of 55 candidates, or 87 per cent, are crorepatis. Among the
major parties 26 (90 per cent) out of the 29 candidates are from the
BJP, 10 (91 per cent) out of 11 candidates from the Congress, 3 (75
per cent) out of 4 candidates from the AITC, 3 (100 per cent) out of
3 from the TRS, 2 (100 per cent) out of 2 candidates from the JD(U)
and 1 (100 per cent) out of 1 from the SP have declared assets worth
more than Rs 1 crore.
The
average assets of 63 candidates analysed are worth Rs 122.13 crore.
The National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms
analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 63 out of the 64 candidates
contesting in the Rajya Sabha elections to be held on 23rd March,
2018 for 58 seats in 16 states.
One
candidate namely Dhiraj Kumar Sahu (INC) contesting from Jharkhand
has not been analysed as his affidavit was badly scanned. The
candidate with the highest declared total assets is Mahendra Prasad
of the JD(U) contesting from Bihar with assets worth Rs 4078.40
crore.
The
candidate with the lowest declared total assets is Achyutananda
Samananta (BJD) contesting from Odisha with assets worth Rs 4.96
lakh. A total of 41(65 per cent) candidates have declared liabilities
out of which the candidate with the highest liabilities is Jaya
Amitabh Bachchan (SP) contesting from Uttar Pradesh with Rs 105.64
crore in liabilities. Thirteen candidates have declared total annual
income of more than Rs 1 crore.