NAVNEET DUBEY
Jammu: Followed by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Omar Abdullah is the second poorest among 31 chief ministers in the country. Mamata Banerjee has total assets worth Rs 15.38 lakh while Jammu and Kashmir CM’s income is also below Rs 1 crore with assets worth Rs 55.24 lakh according to an analysis of their self-sworn affidavits. The third on the list of richest CMs, albeit from the bottom, is Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan with assets worth Rs 1.18 crore, it stated.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) have analysed the affidavits, which were filed by the 31 chief ministers before contesting their last election.
It further stated that there are two billionaire CMs on this list – Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh, who is the richest with Rs 931 crore, followed by Pema Khandu of Arunachal Pradesh with Rs 332 crore. “The total assets of 31 chief ministers are Rs 1,630 crore,” it stated.
West Bengal and Delhi are the only two parts with a leading lady, the report said. Atishi is not only one of these two women but also the youngest overall at the age of 38 and is, in fact, the only CM aged under 40 in India, it said.
The report also shows that Bihar’s Nitish Kumar is the sole CM who is an MLC while the remaining are MLAs. The report said the average asset per Chief Minister from State Assemblies and Union Territories is Rs 52.59 crore. While India’s per capita net national income or NNI was approximately Rs 1,85,854 for 2023-2024, the average self-income of a Chief Minister is Rs 13,64,310, around 7.3 times the average per capita income of India.
The total assets of 31 Chief Ministers are worth Rs 1,630 crores. Arunachal Pradesh’s Pema Khandu is the second richest Chief Minister with total assets worth over ₹332 crores, Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah is the third on the list with assets worth more than Rs 51 crore.
It also said 13 (42%) Chief Ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves, while 10 (32%) have declared serious criminal cases including those related to attempt to murder, kidnapping, bribery, and criminal intimidation. Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has the highest number of criminal cases filed against him. Revanth Reddy has around 89 cases against him, 72 of which are serious IPC counts.
Following Revanth Reddy, MK Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, has the highest number of cases, totalling 47, and the highest number of serious IPC cases, 11.
