NEW DELHI, Apr 12: The West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is the sole exception in the galaxy of “crorepati” chief ministers in the country irrespective of the party they belonged to.
According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) which based its report on the analysis of poll affidavits, 29 of the 30 incumbent Chief Ministers are “crorepatis” with Andhra Pradesh’s Jagan Mohan Reddy having the highest assets totalling ₹510 crore, while Mamata Banerjee has the lowest total assets of just about ₹15 lakhs.
The ADR and National Election Watch (NEW) said they have arrived at this conclusion after analysing the self-sworn poll affidavits of all the 30 current Chief Ministers of States and Union Territories. There are 28 State Chief Ministers and two Union Territories — Delhi and Puducherry — also have Chief Ministers. The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir does not have a Chief Minister currently.
Out of the 30 CMs analysed, 29 (97%) are crorepatis with the average assets being ₹33.96 crore for every CM, the ADR said. According to the ADR report, out of the 30 CMs, 13 (43%) have declared serious criminal cases including those related to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and criminal intimidation.
Serious criminal cases are non-bailable offences with over five years of imprisonment, the report said. The top three Chief Ministers in terms of assets are Andhra Pradesh’s Jagan Mohan Reddy (over ₹510 crores), Arunanchal Pradesh’s Pema Khandu (over ₹163 crores) and Odisha’s Naveen Pattnaik (over ₹63 crore), according to the ADR.
The three CMs with the lowest declared assets are — West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee (over ₹15 lakh), Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan (over ₹1 crore) and Haryana’s Manohar Lal Khattar (over ₹1 crore), the ADR said.
Both Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal own assets worth over ₹3 crore each, the report said.
(Manas Dasgupta)