With Rs 308 crore, industrialist Rahul Bajaj is the richest Rajya Sabha MP and CPI secretary D. Raja is the poorest Upper House member with zero assets. Unlike the Lok Sabha, the Election Commission does not declare information about Upper House members.
The information is maintained by state assemblies. The NGO Association for Democratic Reforms got the information though the Right to Information for the first time.
The data shows that Rajya Sabha MPs are richer than Lok Sabha MPs, of whom the richest, Nageshwar Rao of the TDP, has assets worth Rs 178 crore – less than the fifth-richest MP in the Rajya Sabha, Anil Lad of the Congress. Bajaj is not only the richest MP but his liabilities are also the maximum (Rs 386 crore) among Indian MPs.
Of the 184 MPs assessed, 54 per cent are crorepatis in the Rajya Sabha. Karnataka leads with 87 per cent of its MPs listed as crorepatis while 65 per cent of Uttar Pradesh’s MPs are crorepatis.
The Rajya Sabha is, however, no match with the Lok Sabha in terms of MPs with criminal records. Just 17 per cent MPs have a criminal record in the Rajya Sabha compared to 30 per cent in the Lok Sabha.