Fact Check: Is Pinarayi Vijayan the third richest Chief Minister in India?
A post is widely being shared on WhatsApp claiming that Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan is the third richest chief minister in India.
By Tejal Sinha Published on 17 March 2022 12:22 PM IST
Hyderabad: A post is widely being shared on WhatsApp claiming that Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan is the third richest chief minister in India.
NewsMeter received the viral post on WhatsApp.
Fact Check
The claim is False.
Since the post mentions 'Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)', we searched about 'World's richest chief ministers in India' on its official website. A report was published on the website on February 15, 2018.
According to the report, "26 of the 21 CMs have assets exceeding Rs 1 crore. Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu tops the list with declared assets worth Rs 177 crore. He's closely followed by Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu with declared assets of Rs 129 crore." Following Prema Khandu was former chief minister of Punjab, Amarinder Singh.
As per the list of ADR, Pinaryi Vijayan ranked 25th on the list.
We then found another report published by ADR titled 'Do you know who are India's 3 richest and 3 poorest Chief Ministers?'
Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu ( Rs 177 crore), Pema Khandu of Arunachal Pradesh (Rs 129 crore), and Amarinder Singh of Punjab (Rs 48 crore) were on the list.
https://adrindia.org/content/
According to the reports, the Chief Minister of Kerala has assets worth Rs 1 crore.
We checked whether similar studies have been conducted on the subject since ADR 2018 but no information was available. We also examined whether any other government agencies or independent organizations have published reports on the same subject. But nothing like this could be found.
Hence, it is evident that the claim is False. Pinaryi Vijayan is not the third richest chief minister in India.
