Agencies
As many as 1024 incumbent MPs and MLAs in India are facing charges of criminal offence, of whom 64 have been named in kidnapping cases. The leaders have declared the charges themselves in the poll affidavits filed by them.
According to Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) which analysed these poll affidavits, of the 64 MPs and MLAs who are facing kidnapping charges, 16 are from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Following the BJP are the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal with six leaders from each party facing kidnapping charges.
Other political parties whose MPs/MLAs appear in the list are Nationalist Congress Party, Biju Janata Dal, DMK, Samajwadi Party, Telugu Desam Party, Trinamool Congress, CPM, CPI-ML, SHS, Bhartiya Tribal Party, Janata Dal United, Lok Janshakti Party, Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal and Telangana Rashtra Samithi. Apart from these, there are four independent members on the list.Out of the MLAs with declared charges of kidnapping, most are from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh with 9 elected representatives from each state. Eight MLAs in Maharashtra and six from West Bengal also face kidnapping charges.
Odisha and Tamil Nadu have four MLAs each facing charges, where Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh have three MLAs each. Other states in the list are Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab and Telangana.
Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav is the Member of Parliament with the maximum number of kidnapping charges. He has been charged with six cases of kidnapping. Another MP from Bihar, LJP’s Rama Kishore Singh is facing four cases of kidnapping. Three more Lok Sabha MPs – Naba Kumar Sarania (IND) of Assam, Sarfaraz Alam (RJD) of Bihar and Udayan Pratapsinha Bhonsale (NCP) of Maharashtra also feature in the list.
Rajya Sabha MPs facing kidnapping charges are Dhoot Rajkumar Nandlal (SHS) and Narayan Tatu Rane (BJP) from Maharashtra and Samajwadi Party’s Chandrapal Singh Yadav from Uttar Pradesh. |
