Rajya Sabha seat goes for Rs 100 crore: Congress MP

NEW DELHI: Congress MP from Haryana Birender Singh said big money was buying seats in Rajya Sabha, training focus on the malaise gripping politics but not without the opposition accusing the ruling party of a dip in political standards.

In a seminar at Narwana in Jind, Singh is reported to have said that he knew a person who had earmarked Rs 100 crore to become a Rajya Sabha MP but managed to achieve his objective with Rs 80 crore.

“Now, if a man succeeds in taking the membership of Rajya Sabha by spending 80 crore or 100 crore rupees, what will they think about the poor?” Singh was quoted as saying. “Not one, but I can tell you about 20 such people,” he added. The statement was seen to point at the recent trend of rich businessmen coming to the upper House amid allegations that money was playing a role in swaying the electoral college.

But with Singh reported to have referred to someone he knew had spent money for a Parliament seat, the opposition accused Congress of “cutting deals” , forcing Singh to clarify. Singh told TOI, “Whatever is being reported has selective words and quotations that have been taken out of context.”
He said EC had analysed the 2009 results to say 350 crorepatis and around 18 billionaires had entered the Lok Sabha which pointed to an unhealthy trend. He added the same feature was gripping the upper House too.

The BJP accused the Congress of bringing corruption in politics. Indian National Lok Dal, Congress’s rival in Haryana , demanded the party clarify how many MPs had paid for their seats while adding that its allegations about Congress had been proved beyond doubt. “What Birender Singh has said is serious ... Congress must make it clear to people,” MLA Abhay Chautala said.

Singh’s statement follows a string of controversial remarks made by Congress leaders like Digvijay Singh, spokesman Raj Babbar and Rashid Masood . While AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh kicked off a storm with a remark about a woman MP, a statement largely misunderstood because of colloquial usage, comments from party leaders over poverty have left the leadership squirming.

Some congressmen last week defended the low expenditure benchmark for calculating poverty levels by stating that meals were even available for Rs 12 and Rs 5. Following a row, the party dissociated itself from the controversial assertions.

‘74% tainted candidates got a second chance’

Speaking on the study, ADR’s professor Trilochan Shastry said, “Criminalization is a fact which can’t be denied . Money plays a big role in elections and criminalization makes it worse.”

ADR also exposed the doublespeak of political parties. The analysis of criminal records of 4,181 repeat candidates shows that 1,072 of them had a criminal case the first time they contested an election and 788 had cases the second time also . This indicates that political parties gave tickets to 74% of candidates with criminal records the second time despite being aware of their dubious backgrounds.

Of the 4,181 candidates who contested more than once, 3,173 showed an increase in wealth. While the average assets of re-contesting candidates went up to Rs 2.34 crore, the average assets of the 4,181 candidates with criminal records grew from Rs 1.74 crore to Rs 4.08 crore.

The assets of all recontesting candidates have grown — to Rs 2.85 crore on average. This translates to 134% growth in declared wealth in less than five years. About 1,615 of the 4,181 candidates showed an increase of over 200%, 684 an increase of over 500%, while assets of 317 candidates increased by over 1000%. In a break-up of political parties, 75% of Shiv Sena MPs and MLAs since 2004 have declared criminal cases against them, followed by the RJD with 46% such candidates and the JD(U) with 44%. The BJP and the Congress were at 31% and 22% respectively.