A whopping 97 per cent or 29 out of 30 chief ministers in India are crorepatis. On average, CMs in our country own an asset worth 34 crores.
Shibra Farhat | Clarion India
NEW DELHI — There are criminal cases against 43 per cent of the chief ministers in India. There is an increase of 8 per cent in criminal cases registered and 17 per cent in declared serious cases including murder, attempt to murder, criminal intimidation, rioting, etc. in 5 years.
A recent report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) reveals that of the 30 chief ministers,13 have declared criminal cases registered against them as per the information shared by them with the Election Commission before contesting their last election. The remaining 17 have either clean backgrounds or they may not have shared such information with the poll body. ADR and National Election Watch (NEW) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of chief ministers in 28 states and two union territories. A similar report released in 2018 showed 11 chief ministers (35 per cent) were having criminal backgrounds, and 8 (26 per cent) were charged with serious offenses.
Telangana Chief Minister K.C. Rao accounts for 32 per cent of the total cases registered against the chief ministers. In 185 cases, KCR has 64 cases registered against him and 37 cases of serious IPC offenses. A total of 53 per cent of those with cases against them are accused of rioting. KCR is an accused in 22 cases of rioting.
Crorepati CMs
A whopping 97 per cent or 29 out of 30 chief ministers in India are crorepatis. On average, CMs in our country own an asset worth 34 crores. This is up by 112 per cent from the available figures for 2018 which stood at 16 crores.
The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is the richest among all CMs with a high margin. He owns assets worth 510 crore which is 50% of the total assets possessed by the chief ministers. Mamta Banerjee is the only female and non-crorepati Chief Minister with assets of 15+ lakhs. In 2018 there were 6 non-crorepati CMs out of 31. Andhra Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh remained the top two states in terms of having the richest CMs.
The National Statistical Office’s estimated per capita income for the year 2022-23 stands at 1,72,000 while the collective assets owned by CMs have almost doubled from 501 to 1,018 crores between 2018 to 2023. The total assets owned by CMs of 29 states and 2 union territories in 2018 were less than the individual possession of the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in 2023.
Young leadership seems to be a far-fetched idea. According to the report, 73% of chief ministers are above the age of 50. Pema Khandu (39), Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, is the youngest while 77 years Pinarayi Vijayan from Kerala is the oldest among them.
Hemant Biswa Sarma from Assam is the only CM with a doctorate degree whereas a majority of chief ministers are graduates.
