Lok Sabha is dominated by crorepatis.
Gone are the days when khadi-clad leaders from the grassroots with little money on them could enter Parliament. These days most Members of Parliament (MP) may still wear simple khadi but they are certainly not short of money. As many as 440 of the 536 MPs in the Lok Sabha are crorepatis.
Most of these crorepati MPs belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mainly because the party has the highest number of MPs in the house.
235 of the BJP’s 277 MPs are crorepatis which is 85 per cent of its total number of MPs. 35 of the Congress’s 44 MPs are crorepatis, whcih is 80 per cent of its total MPs.There are parties with all their MPs being crorepatis. These are smaller parties such as CPI JD(S). JD(U), PDP and RJD with one, two or three MPs. All 16 MPs of TDP are crorepatis. 9 of TRS’s 11 MPs are crorepatis.The richest Lok Sabha MP is TDP’s Jayadev Galla from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. He is worth more than Rs 600 crore.The 2009 Lok Sabha had 300 crorepatis, almost double the number in 2004.
In 2014, re-elected members returned to the Lok Sabha with double their wealth. The average assets of these re-elected MPs has increased from Rs 5.38 crore in 2009 to Rs 12.78 crore in 2014, registering a growth of Rs 7.40 crore in the last five years.
According to Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) data, 165 of the re-elected MPs disclosed an average increase of 137% in their assets. Shatrughan Sinha of the BJP saw the highest rise in his fortunes with his wealth growing by 778% from a mere Rs 15 crore in 2009 to Rs 131 crore.
