It is Most Profitable to be a Chief Minister From a State Party

On February 12, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), published its report titled, Analysis of Chief Ministers from 29 State Assemblies and 2 Union Territories of India. The report looked at several aspects of the 31 Chief Ministers. The main headings were; criminal cases; financial background; and analysis based on gender, education and age details of Chief Ministers. The report has displayed the richest three Chief Ministers and the three Chief Ministers with the least assets among others. Using the data provided in the ADR report, a party-wise breakup of wealth should be done. The party-wise breakup is on the basis of recognised national parties as separate from the state parties which will be grouped as one.

At present, there are seven national parties; AITC, BJP, BSP, CPI, CPI(M), INC, and NCP. Of these parties, only the AITC, BJP, CPI(M), and INC have Chief Ministers. The AITC has one Chief Minister, the BJP has 14, CPI(M) has 2, and INC has 5. This means that out of 31 Chief Ministers, 22 of them belong to national parties.

Since the AITC has only one CM the share of the party in the total assets is the least. The CPI(M) has only two CMs and the share is also low at 0.27%. The State Parties have the second highest number of CMs and the largest share of the total assets, the BJP has the highest number of CMs and the second largest share of the total assets.

Given that the AITC has only one CM, the average and total assets are the same at Rs. 0.3 crores. The CPI(M) with two CMs had the second least average assets at Rs. 0.67 crores. The State Parties with 9 CMs had not only the largest share of total assets but also the highest average assets at Rs. 25.51 crores, 9.32 crores above the overall average assets of CMs. The INC had the second highest average assets at Rs. 19.05 crores. The BJP with 14 CMs has 12.53 crores as its average.

A cynical view of this data would involve a view that it is most profitable to be a Chief Minister from a State Party rather than a National Party, and if one were to choose a National Party to be a part of, the INC and BJP would be the best option. Each category of the parties whose CMs have high assets has one member who each who featured in the top three richest CM’s list; Nara Chandrababu Naidu, Pema Khandu, and Amarinder Singh. The AITC and the CPI(M) both featured in the list of CMs with the least assets; Mamata Banerjee and Manik Sarkar, the third being Mehbooba Mufti of the JKPDP. Mamata Banerjee had no immovable assets, and Manik Sarkar had the least assets.