A very insightful report released yesterday by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) has presented some interesting facts about details pertaining to all 31 incumbent chief ministers in India.
This report is based on sworn affidavits of chief ministers of all states and union territories filed during their election campaigns and, hence, current data might have changed. It has studied aspects like their declared wealth, educational qualifications and criminal charges against them.
According to the report, the richest CM in India is Andhra Pradesh’s Chandrababu Naidu, who declared assets worth Rs. 177 crore in his election affidavit. He is followed by Arunachal Pradesh’s Pema Khandu (Rs. 129 crore) and Punjab’s Capt. Amarinder Singh (48 crores).
Almost 81% of Indian chief ministers, or 25 out of 31 of them, are crorepatis. Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar (Rs. 27 lakh), West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee (Rs. 30 lakh) and Jammu & Kashmir’s Mehbooba Mufti (Rs. 56 lakh) declared lowest figures in this regard.
In terms of criminal charges faced by Indian chief ministers, Maharashtra’s Devendra Fadnavis tops the list with highest number of cases (22) pending against him. He is followed by Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan (11), Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal (10), Jharkhand’s Raghubar Das (8) and Punjab’s Capt. Amarinder (4).
The report also has a separate category of serious offences that include crimes like murder, attempt to murder, fraud, cheating, criminal intimidation, etc. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal faces the highest number of such serious charges amongst ten others in that list.
Around 35% of all CMs have declared criminal charges pending against them in their election affidavits, while twenty of them (65%) claim to have clean records. Out of eleven CMs who declared criminal charges, eight of them face allegations of serious offences.
On the question of educational qualifications, 10% of India’s 31 chief ministers are 12th pass, 39% are graduates, 16% post-graduate professionals and one CM, Sikkim’s P.K. Chamling, is a doctorate. The report also indicated that only three current chief ministers in India are women.