Of the 30 chief ministers of states and Union Territories, 29 have declared assets worth crores, a report by Association for Democratic Reforms revealed on Wednesday.
The Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all current chief ministers and found Andhra Pradesh’s Jagan Mohan Reddy to be the wealthiest among them.
The Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party leader has total declared assets worth Rs 5,10,38,16,566. Reddy is followed by Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu who has total declared assets worth Rs 1,63,50,58,142. Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik is the third-richest chief minister with assets worth Rs 63,87,41,816.
According to the report, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has the lowest declared assets at Rs 15,38,029. The Trinamool Congress leader is followed by Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan who has declared assets worth Rs 1,18,75,766. Manohar Lal Khattar is the chief minister with the third-lowest assets at Rs 1,27,00,985.
The report examined data from affidavits filed by the chief ministers prior to contesting their last elections.
Besides analysing assets of the chief ministers, the combined report listed their liabilities, education qualifications, their age group and criminal records.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had the highest declared liability at Rs 8,88,47,570. He was followed by Karnataka’s Basavaraj Bommai at Rs 4,99,23,550, and Maharashtra’s Eknath Shinde who has declared liabilities of Rs 3,74,60,261.
Criminal cases
Of the 30 chief ministers, 13 had declared criminal cases against them.
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader had the most criminal cases against him at 63, out of which 37 were serious criminal cases under Indian Penal Code.
The Association for Democratic Reforms defines serious crimes as non-bailable offences that attract a maximum punishment of five years and more. These are crimes related to assault, murder, kidnap and rape, as well as crimes against women and corruption cases.
Rao was followed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin who has 47 cases against him, including 10 serious offences. Reddy was at the third spot with 38 criminal cases against him, out of which 35 were for serious offences.
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