The southern state of Kerala is top among the states with the highest percentage of MPs with criminal cases against them, according to the latest report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW).
In the list of Members of Parliament who disclosed criminal cases in their self-sworn affidavits, Kerala took the lead with 73%, with Bihar, Maharashtra at 57%, and Telangana at 50% following closely behind.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) state that out of the 763 Members of Parliament (MPs), 306 of them, constituting 40%, have self-declared criminal cases against themselves.
Out of 306, 194 of them have declared serious cases against themselves, including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, crimes against women etc.
Bihar leads with the highest proportion of MPs facing serious criminal cases at 50%, followed by Telangana at 9%, Kerala at 10%, Maharashtra at 34%, and Uttar Pradesh at 37%.
When assessing party-specific statistics, it is revealed that 139 (36%) of the 385 MPs representing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 43 (53%) out of the 81 MPs from the Congress, 14 (39%) of the 36 MPs from the Trinamool Congress (TMC), 5 (83%) of the 6 MPs representing the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), 6 (75%) out of the 8 MPs from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M), 3 (27%) out of the 11 MPs from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), 13 (42%) out of the 31 MPs from YSRCP, and 3 (38%) out of the 8 MPs from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have disclosed criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
As per the submitted affidavits, 32 Members of Parliament (MPs) have disclosed cases related to ‘attempt to murder’ (IPC Section 307). Among the current sitting MPs, 21 have declared cases linked to crimes against women, with 4 of them declaring cases specifically related to rape (IPC Section 376).
The average assets held by Members of Parliament (MPs) from both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha amount to ₹38.33 crore. MPs who have declared criminal cases, on average, possess ₹50.03 crore in assets, whereas MPs with no criminal cases have an average asset value of ₹30.50 crore.
Telangana, represented by 24 MPs, boasts the highest average assets among its parliamentarians, with an average asset value of ₹262.26 crore. Following closely behind, Andhra Pradesh, with 36 MPs, reports an average asset worth of ₹150.76 crore, while Punjab, represented by 20 MPs, holds an average asset value of ₹88.94 crore.
Currently, there are four vacant seats in the Lok Sabha and one in the Rajya Sabha. Additionally, four Rajya Sabha seats from Jammu and Kashmir remain undefined. The affidavits of one Lok Sabha MP and three Rajya Sabha MPs could not be analyzed as their affidavits were unavailable.