Four of 17 Gujarat ministers have criminal cases against them; one has serious criminal case against him

Vibha Sharma 

New Delhi, December 13 

Four or 24 per cent of Gujarat’s newly-elected 17 ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves, according to the Gujarat Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms on the basis of analysis of the self-sworn affidavits of all the ministers, including the chief minister, in the Gujarat State Assembly, 2022.

“Four (24 per cent) ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves. One (six per cent) minister has declared a serious criminal case against himself,” ADR and Gujarat Election Watch stated.

Out of the 17 ministers analysed, 16 (94 per cent) are crorepatis and the average assets of the 17 ministers analysed is Rs 32.7 crore. The minister with the highest declared total assets is Balvantsinh Chandansinh Rajput from Sidhpur constituency with assets worth Rs 372.65 crore, as per the analysis.

The minister with the lowest declared total assets is Khabad Bachubhai Maganbhai from Devgadhbaria constituency with assets worth Rs 92.85 lakh.

Meanwhile, 14 ministers have declared liabilities out of which, the minister with the highest liabilities is Balvantsinh Chandansinh Rajput with Rs 12.59 crore of liabilities.

As many as six (35 per cent) ministers have declared their educational qualification to be between Class 8 and Class 12 while eight (47 per cent) ministers declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. Three (18 per cent) ministers are Diploma holders.

Three (18 per cent) ministers declared their age to be between 31 and 50 while 14 (82 per cent) ministers are between 51 and 80 years.

There is only one woman minister in the council.