New Delhi, April 6 (Inditop.com) As many as 17 percent of Rajya Sabha members have criminal cases pending against them with the Congress party having the highest number of tainted parliamentarians in the upper house, said a study released here Tuesday.

The analysis was based on self-sworn affidavits giving details of criminal cases collected for 219 current Rajya Sabha members from various state assembly secretariates submitted at the time of their election to the house.

“Thirty-seven of the 219 MPs have criminal cases pending against them. Twelve have serious criminal cases,” it said.

The analysis was done by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW), a nationwide campaign comprising more than 1,200 NGOs.

“The Congress has the highest number with seven parliamentarians with a criminal background in the Rajya Sabha followed by six from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and three from the Samajwadi Party,” the report said.

The study also analysed assets as declared by the members in their affidavits and found that 98 of them are millionaires.

About 65 percent of Congress MPs are millionaires followed by 53 percent from the BJP.