Berth secured: Wealthy candidates get to be ministers after state elections

A minister in Assam, Kerala and West Bengal is richer than a legislator of ruling alliance; Tamil Nadu bucks trend but has more minsters charged with crimes.

Political parties tend to select wealthy electoral candidates as ministers for state cabinets, ‘Business Standard' has found by analysing data that first showed the average assets of MLAs had nearly doubled in states that voted this year.

An analysis of data from Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) about Cabinets in Assam, Kerala and West Bengal found a minister was on average wealthier than a winning MLA in terms of assets declared in affidavits given to the Election Commission. Tamil Nadu held elections this year but it bucked the trend.

In Assam, the average assets of a ruling alliance MLA was