NEW DELHI: As many as 11 out of a total number of 31 chief ministers of various states and union territories in India have criminal cases against them while 25 of them are millionaires, an analysis of their self-sworn affidavits furnished during the assembly elections has revealed.
The analysis, by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch, found that of the 11 chief ministers with criminal cases, eight (26 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, criminal intimidation etc.
The chief ministers having various criminal charges against them include Yogi Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh (BJP), Devendra Fadnavis of Maharashtra (BJP), Raghubar Das of Jharkhand (BJP), Nitish Kumar of Bihar (JD-U), Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh (TDP), K Chandrasekhar Rao of Telangana (TRS), Amarinder Singh of Punjab (Congress), Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala (CPI-M), Mehbooba Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir (PDP), Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi (AAP) and V. Narayanasamy of Puducherry (Congress).
Although 25 (81 per cent) of chief ministers are crorepatis (multi-millionaires), three leaders who top the chart are Naidu with a net worth of more than Rs 177 crore, Pema Khandu of Arunachal Pradesh with Rs 129 crore assets and Amarinder Singh with total assets worth more than Rs 48 crore.
The three Chief Ministers with lowest assets are Manik Sarkar of Tripura with assets worth Rs 2.6 million, Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal with Rs 3 million and Mehbooba Mufti with assets worth around Rs 5.5 million.