Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu has assets worth Rs 177 crore, making him the richest chief minister in India.
This was revealed in a report published by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) where they analysed the assets as well as the criminal cases filed against chief ministers of Indian states.
Naidu is followed by Pema Khandu of Arunachal Pradesh with Rs 129 crores and Capt Amarinder Singh of Punjab, who has assets worth Rs 48 crores.
Manik Sarkar of Tripura is the poorest among Chief Ministers in office in the country, with Rs 26 lakhs to his name. West Bengal chief minister Mamta Banerjee with Rs 30 lakhs and J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti with Rs 55 lakh come in the second and third places respectively.
The report revealed that 25 of 31 chief ministers are crorepatis, and two among them have net assets worth more than 100 crores.
Sadly, a good percentage of these chief ministers have criminal cases registered against them.
"Out of the all 31 chief ministers analysed from state assemblies and Union territories, 11 (35 per cent) chief ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves," the ADR noted. About 26 percent of them have been charged with murder and attempt to murder.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has the maximum number of criminal cases registered against him. He has 22 cases registered against him with charges such as “abetment of such assault, if the assault is committed”, “voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means”, being part of an unlawful assembly, rioting and voluntarily causing hurt among others.
Fadnavis is following by Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. He has 11 cases registered against him for “cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property”, rioting and criminal conspiracy.
Damian Talbot