51 crorepatis in Modi 2.0, 22 face criminal charges

New Delhi: Of the 56 ministers who took oath on Thursday and are part of either the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha, 51 are crorepatis and 22 have declared criminal cases against themselves, according to election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

It said eight ministers have declared their educational qualification to be between 10th and 12th standard, while 47 are graduates. One minister holds a diploma.

The ADR released the findings after analysing affidavits of 56 of the 58 ministers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, from the 17th Lok Sabha and the current Rajya Sabha.

The details of Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan, who is the minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, and External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar were not analysed as they are not members of Parliament currently.

Of the 56 ministers analysed, 22 (39 per cent) have declared criminal cases against themselves, while 16 (29 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases, including those related to attempt to murder, communal disharmony, electoral violations etc., the ADR said.

When compared with data from the 16th Lok Sabha, the number of ministers with criminal cases has risen by eight percentage points, while the count of those with serious criminal cases has increased by 12 percentage points, it said.

Six ministers have declared cases related to promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc. Three ministers, including firebrand BJP leaders Giriraj Singh and Ashwini Kumar Chaubey, have declared cases of poll code violation against themselves.

The ADR said 51 (91 per cent) of the ministers are crorepatis. On an average, each minister has assets worth Rs 14.72 crore.

Four ministers, including Home Minister Amit Shah, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Shiromani Akali Dal's Harsimrat Kaur Badal, have declared assets worth more than Rs 40 crore.

Only five ministers, including first-timers Kailash Chaudhary and Rameswar Teli, have declared assets worth less than Rs 1 crore.

These also include Pratap Chandra Sarangi from Odisha's Balasore who is famous for his austere lifestyle. He has declared assets worth around Rs 13 lakh, according to the ADR.

Eleven ministers are aged between 41 and 50, while 45 have declared their age to be between 51 and 70 years.

475 Lok Sabha 'crorepatis'

A total of 475 members of the new Lok Sabha are 'crorepatis' with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath's son Nakul Nath topping the list, the Association of Democratic Reforms said Sunday.

The ADR arrived at the figure of 'crorepati' MPs after analysing the affidavits on assets and liabilities of 539 new MPs.

The ADR said it was unable to access affidavits of three of the 542 new MPs -- two of the BJP and one of the Congress. The BJP won 303 seats in the 17th Lok Sabha and the Congress 52.

Elections were held for 542 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats. The election for Vellore Lok Sabha seat had been cancelled by the Election Commission of India, citing abuse of money power. A fresh date is yet to be announced. Two membvers of the 545-strong House are nominated.

Out of the 301 new BJP MPs, whose affidavits were examined, 265 (88 per cent) were found crorepati, while all 18 winners of its NDA partner Shiv Sena had assets exceeding Rs one crore.

In the Congress, 43 out of its 51 MPs (totalling 96 per cent) were fund to be 'crorepati'.

Similarly, 22(96 per cent)out of 23 DMK MPs,20 (91 per cent)out of 22 of the Trinamool Congress MPs and 19 (86 per cent)out of 22 YSR Congress MPs had assets exceeding Rs one crore.

The top three crorepatis MPs are from the Congress, the ADR said.

Nath, who won from Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, has declared assets worth Rs 660 crore, followed by Vasanthakumar H from Kanniyakumari, Tamil Nadu (Rs 417 crore) and D K Suresh from Bengaluru Rural, Karnataka (Rs 338 crore).

The average of assets per winner in the Lok Sabha elections is Rs 20.93 crore.

There are 266 members in the new Lok Sabha whose assets are Rs 5 core or above.

The number of crorepati MPs elected in 2009 Lok Sabha elections was 315 (58 per cent) and 443 (82 per cent) in the 2014.