Naidu, Khandu, and Sidda among country's richest chief ministers: ADR

Of the 30 CMs, two (7%) are billionaires, Andhra Pradesh's N Chandrababu Naidu, with total assets worth over Rs 931 crore, and Arunachal Pradesh's Pema Khandu, who has assets worth over Rs 332 cr

According to an analysis released Friday, the average assets of 30 chief ministers, including all of India’s states and Union Territories barring Manipur, is Rs 54.42 crore, but with wide variation. The total assets of 30 CMs are Rs. 1,632 crores.

 

Of the 30 CMs, two (7 per cent ) are billionaires, Andhra Pradesh’s N Chandrababu Naidu, with total assets worth over Rs 931 crore, and Arunachal Pradesh’s Pema Khandu, who has assets worth over Rs 332 crore. At number three is Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah with total assets worth over Rs 51 crore.

 

The CMs with lowest assets are West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee with assets worth over Rs 15.38 lakh, Omar Abdullah, CM of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, with assets worth over Rs 55.24 lakh, and Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, who has assets worth  Rs 1.18 crore. Others with low assets are Rajasthan CM Bhajan Lal Sharma (Rs 1.46 crore), UP's Yogi Adityanath (Rs 1.54 crore), Bihar's Nitish Kumar (Rs 1.64 crore), Punjab's Bhagwant Mann (Rs 1.97 crore), Odisha's Mohan Charan Majhi (Rs 1.97 crore) and Chhattisgarh's Vishnu Deo Sai (Rs 3.80 crore).

 

 

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all 30 current Chief Ministers in state assemblies and UTs across the nation. This data has been extracted from affidavits filed by the CMs prior to contesting their last elections. At present, Manipur is under President’s Rule.

 

After the ADR report was released, sources in the Telugu Desam Party said Naidu’s wealth comes from the value of the shares his wife Nara Bhuvaneswari holds in Heritage Foods Ltd, a listed company, which he founded in 1992. Bhuvaneswari, along with her daughter-in-law, Nara Brahmani, runs the company.

 

“The value of N Chandrababu Naidu’s wealth has accrued over 33 years from a company he founded in 1992, before he had become the CM, and when Chittoor and southern Andhra faced milk shortage. It was after the dairy sector was liberalised and private players encouraged to invest in milk processing and marketing,” the TDP source said.

 

Out of the 30 CMs, 12 (40 per cent ) CMs have declared criminal cases against themselves.

 

Gender ratio: Only two (7 per cent ) of the 30 CMs are women – Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Delhi’s Rekha Gupta.

 

Educational qualifications: 9 (30 per cent ) of the CMs are graduates, 6 (20 per cent ) are graduate professionals, 9 (27 per cent ) are post graduates, 2 (7 per cent ) have doctorates, 1 (3 per cent ) is a diploma holder, 3 (10 per cent ) are 12th pass and 1 (3 per cent ) is 10th pass.

 

Age group: 8 are between 41-50 year old, 12 between 51-60, 4 between 61-70 and 6 are between 71-80.