35 percent of India's chief ministers have criminal cases against them, reveals ADR report

New Delhi: In India, around 35 percent chief ministers have criminal cases against them and 81 percent of the total are crorepatis, according to an ADR report released on Monday. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of current chief ministers in state Assemblies and Union territories across the nation. These were the latest affidavits filed by them prior to contesting the elections. [caption id=“attachment_4325757” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar submits the nomination for Tripura Assembly election. PTI[/caption] “Out of the all 31 chief ministers analysed from state Assemblies and Union territories, 11 (35 percent) chief ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves,” the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report noted. Further, 26 percent chief ministers have declared serious criminal cases, including related to murder, attempt to murder, cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, criminal intimidation, among others. Interestingly, as many as 25 chief ministers, or 81 percent, are crorepatis, with two of them having assets to the tune of over Rs 100 crore. The average assets of chief ministers are worth Rs 16.18 crore. According to the report, Andhra Pradesh’s Chandra Babu Naidu has emerged as the wealthiest chief minister with declared assets worth over Rs 177 crore, followed by Arunachal Pradesh’s Pema Khandu (over Rs 129 crore) and Amarinder Singh of Punjab (over Rs 48 crore). The chief minister with the lowest declared asset is Tripura’s Manik Sarkar with assets worth Rs 27 lakh, followed by West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee (over Rs 30 lakh) and Jammu and Kashmir’s Mehbooba Mufti (Rs 56 lakh). In terms of educational qualification, 10 percent of 31 chief ministers are 12th pass, 39 percent graduate, 32 percent graduate professional, 16 percent post graduate and 3 percent doctorate.