47% of India’s ministers face criminal cases, including 174 with serious charges.
Total declared assets of ministers across India reach ₹23,929 crore.
11 state assemblies have billionaire ministers, led by TDP MP Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani.
Nearly 47 per cent of ministers in the country have declared criminal cases against themselves, including charges such as murder, kidnapping and crimes against women, an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has found.
The report came days after the Centre introduced three bills that sought the removal of the prime minister, chief ministers and other ministers who are arrested for 30 days on serious criminal charges, PTI reported.
ADR examined self-sworn affidavits of 643 ministers from 27 state assemblies, three Union Territories and the Union Council of Ministers. The organisation found that 302 ministers,about 47 per cent of the total, declared criminal cases against themselves; 174 of those ministers face cases ADR classifies as serious.
Among regional parties, ADR recorded that 27 of 31 DMK ministers (around 87 per cent) declared criminal cases, with 14 (45 per cent) listed as facing serious charges. The Trinamool Congress had 13 of its 40 ministers (33 per cent) with criminal cases, eight (20 per cent) of them in the serious category. The Telugu Desam Party reported 22 of its 23 ministers (96 per cent) declaring criminal cases, with 13 (57 per cent) in serious cases. Among Aam Aadmi Party ministers, 11 of 16 (69 per cent) declared criminal cases and five (31 per cent) face serious charges.
At the national level, 29 of the 72 Union ministers (40 per cent) declared criminal cases in their affidavits, PTI reported.
ADR said 11 state assemblies, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Puducherry, have more than 60 per cent of ministers declaring criminal cases. By contrast, ministers in Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland and Uttarakhand declared no criminal cases.
The ADR report also analysed declared financial assets. It found the average assets of the 643 ministers stood at ₹37.21 crore, and total assets across that group amounted to ₹23,929 crore.
Of the 30 assemblies covered, 11 included ministers who declared assets in the billionaire range. Karnataka had eight such ministers, Andhra Pradesh six and Maharashtra four. Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Telangana each had two; Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab each had one. Within the Union Council of Ministers, six of 72 (eight per cent) declared assets in the billionaire range, ADR recorded.
By party, the BJP accounted for 14 ministers who declared assets in the billionaire range; these 14 represented about 4 per cent of the party’s ministers. The Congress had 11 such ministers among its 61 (about 18 per cent), and the TDP had six among its 23 (about 26 per cent). The Aam Aadmi Party, Janasena Party, JD(S), NCP and Shiv Sena also had ministers who declared assets in the billionaire range.
Dr Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani of the TDP, who represents Guntur in the Lok Sabha, declared assets of more than ₹5,705 crore. D K Shivakumar of Karnataka declared assets exceeding ₹1,413 crore, and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu declared assets of more than ₹931 crore. Other ministers in the ADR list of the top ten by declared wealth include Narayana Ponguru and Nara Lokesh from Andhra Pradesh; Gaddam Vivekanand and Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy from Telangana; Suresha B S from Karnataka; Mangal Prabhat Lodha from Maharashtra; and Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
At the lower end of the scale, Sukla Charan Noatia of the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura declared assets of about ₹2 lakh, while West Bengal minister Birbaha Hansda of the Trinamool Congress declared assets a little above ₹3 lakh.
ADR noted that the status of the criminal cases cited in the affidavits may have changed since they were filed with the Election Commission between 2020 and 2025, PTI reported.
(With inputs from PTI)
