According to a new report from the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), 40% of India’s chief ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves. This involves 12 out of the 30 chief ministers examined in the report. Telangana’s Chief Minister Revanth Reddy leads with 89 declared criminal cases, while Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister MK Stalin has 47 cases. Other chief ministers with declared cases include Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh (19 cases), Siddaramaiah of Karnataka (13 cases), and Hemant Soren of Jharkhand (5 cases). Devendra Fadnavis and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, the chief ministers of Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh respectively, each have four declared cases. Furthermore, Pinarayi Vijayan, the Chief Minister of Kerala, has two declared cases, and Bhagwant Mann, the Chief Minister of Punjab, has one declared case. The release of this report coincides with the government’s introduction of three bills that include provisions for the removal of prime ministers, chief ministers, and ministers if they are arrested for serious criminal offenses for a period of 30 days. The ADR report indicates that 10 chief ministers, which is 33%, have declared serious criminal cases, covering charges such as attempted murder, kidnapping, bribery, and criminal intimidation. The data was gathered from the affidavits that these chief ministers submitted before their last election, and the ADR analyzed these from all 30 current chief ministers across states and union territories.
