Four out of every ten chief ministers in India have declared criminal cases against themselves, according to a new report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch.
The analysis, which studied the self-sworn affidavits of all 30 sitting chief ministers from state Assemblies and Union Territories, found that 12 chief ministers (40%) face criminal cases, while 10 (33%) are accused in serious offences such as attempt to murder, kidnapping, bribery and criminal intimidation.
Among them, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy tops the list with 89 declared cases, followed by Tamil Nadu’s M K Stalin with 47 cases. Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu has 19 cases, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah 13 cases, and Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren 5 cases. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu declared four cases each, while Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan declared two and Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann one.
