New Delhi, April 24
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav may be among the most vocal seekers of transparency in the Indian Premier League dealings, but when it comes to self-disclosure, he’s among the 55 truant MPs who have failed to submit details of their assets and liabilities to the Houses despite year-long reminders.

Available information shows that 51 MPs of the Lower House and four of the Upper House continue to violate the Representation of People’s Act 1951 which was amended in 2002 to make it compulsory for MPs to disclose their financial status to the House within 90 days of the oath of affirmation to Parliament.

For most MPs of the 15th Lok Sabha, this deadline expired on August 31, 2009 as they took the oath on June 1, last.

Yet, 51 MPs - more than half from the ruling Congress - continue to ignore the Members of Lok Sabha Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Rules 2004, a violation that can attract a penalty similar to the breach of privilege of Lok Sabha.

But that doesn’t bother the MPs, with the Congress and its ally the Trinamool Congress having the most defaulters - 28 (26 Congress, two TMC) out of 51. The UPA in fact contributes 33 MPs (64 per cent) to the defaulters’ list as against 15 from the NDA.

Speaker Meira Kumar (who earlier sent six reminders to political parties and MPs) has now shot off a final letter to 17 leaders of legislative parties in Lok Sabha, asking them to make their MPs comply.

Prominent among defaulting Congress MPs are Deepa Dasmunshi, wife of former Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi; Deepender Hooda, son of Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda; aggressive Domariyaganj MP Jagdambika Pal, famous as a one-day former Chief Minister of UP; Rajkumari Ratna Singh of Pratapgarh (UP), Harsh Vardhan, also a member from UP; Madhu Gaud Yakshi from Andhra, who recently shot to fame with his pro-Telengana stance and Gurgaon MP and former minister Rao Inderjit.

From Mamata’s brigade, actor Tapas Pal and Kalyan Banerjee are among the defaulters, while from Mayawati’s BSP, Dara Singh Chauhan, party leader in the Lower House, is one among the four who are yet to comply.

The four defaulting BJP MPs are Madhusudan Yadav, Ramakant Yadav, Ramsinh Rathwa and Nikhil Kumar Choudhry. TDP MPs in the defaulters’ list include Ramesh Rathod and Naramalli Sivaprasad. Shiv Sena’s sole defaulter is Ganeshrao Nagorao. The JDU has four defaulters. Tainted former CM of Jharkhand Madhu Koda, Kalyan Singh and Digvijay Singh are the three Independent defaulters.

In Rajya Sabha, the MPs who haven’t submitted asset details to House President Hamid Ansari are: AA Jinnah (DMK), Brijlal Khabri (BSP), Dhiraj Sahu (Congress) and P Kannan (AIADMK).