Nearly every second Lok Sabha member has a criminal case against their name. As per a press release by the National Election Watch (NEW) and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), 233 out of 542 newly elected Lok Sabha members have shown criminal cases in their affidavits.

The study that analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 539 out of 542 winners in the Lok Sabha 2019 elections also revealed that 159 members, that account for a total of 29 percent of the lower house’s strength, have declared “serious” criminal cases against themselves. This includes 87 BJP members, 19 Congress members, eight from Janata Dal-United, six DMK members and four from the Trinamool Congress.

Further, the analysis revealed that ten of the members have been convicted. These include five BJP members - Jagdambika Pal, Manoj Kishorbhai Kotak, Kailash Choudhary, Chhatar Singh Darbar and Rajbahadur Singh, four from the Congress - Dean Kuriakose, TN Prathapan, K Sudhakaran and VK Sreekandan, and Talari Rangaiah from YSR Congress Party.

11 MPs have murder cases against them

As per the detailed analysis, 11 parliamentarians have declared in their affidavits that they are facing murder related criminal charges. The names include Horen Sing Bey, Nisith Pramanik, Ajay Kumar, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Chhatar Singh Darba of BJP; Atul Kumar Singh and Afzal Ansari from Bahujan Samaj Party; Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of Congress; Udayanraje Bhonsle from Nationalist Congress Party; Kuruva Gorantla Madhav (YSRCP) and Naba Kumar Sarania (Independent).

Besides murder, parliament members face various other criminal charges. As per the report, Saumitra Khan (BJP), Hibi Eden (Congress) and Kuruva Gorantla Madhav (YSRCP) have cases related to crime against women against them.

Nine out of ten members are crorepatis

Another interesting revelation from the study is that 88 percent of the winners, a total of 475, are crorepatis. BJP tops this list with 265 crorepatis followed by Congress (43), DMK (22), Trinamool Congress (19), YSRCP (19).

Nakul Nath of Congress is the richest member with assets worth over Rs 660 crore followed by fellow party members Vasanthakumar H (over Rs 417 crore) and DK Suresh (over 338 crores).

As per the analysis, Goddeti Madhavi of the YSRCP with declared assets worth over Rs one lakh is the least rich Lok Sabha member followed by BJD’s Chandrani Murmu and Mahant Balak Nath of the BJP, both of whom have declared assets worth over Rs three lakh.

Female representation increases in the Lok Sabha

According to the data, at 77, the number of female members now constitute 17 percent of the total members in the house. This, as per the data, is a considerable rise from 62 in 2014 and 59 in 2009.

Other facts

When it comes to education, 128 (24 percent) winners have declared their educational qualification to be between 5th pass and 12th pass, while 392 (73 percent) have declared having an educational qualification of graduate and above. One member has declared himself to be just literate and one is Illiterate. In terms of age, 194 (36 percent) are below fifty and two are over 80 years old.

First Published:May 26, 2019 8:27 PM IST