Cabinet 2.0: Jyotiraditya richest, Pratima poorest; 42 % ministers facing criminal charges

Hyderabad: Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia is the richest member in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet 2.0. Former Congressman, who was once a close friend of Rahul Gandhi, owns assets worth Rs 379 Crore. A breakdown of Scindia's assets shows that he owns movable properties worth Rs 50 crore and immovable worth Rs 328 crore.

It is known to the country that Scindia hails from the royal family that once ruled Gwalior. He is closely followed by Goyal Piyush Vedprakash whose total assets are worth Rs 95 crore, Narayan Tatu Rane owns assets worth Rs 87 Crore and Rajeev Chandrasekhar Rs 64 Crore. Over 4 ministers in the new-look cabinet have a wealth of more than Rs 50 crore.

On the contrary, newly inducted Minister Pratima Bhoumik from Tripura is the poorest with property worth Rs 6 lakh. A total of 8 Ministers have declared assets less than Rs. 1 crore.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led BJP government recently inducted 43 new Union ministers into cabinet 2.0, which they called 'Young India'. This put an end to 12 senior ministers who held crucial portfolios, including India's former health and family affairs minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan.

Others include Pashupati Kumar Paras, Bhupender Yadav, Anupriya Patel, Shobha Karandlaje, Meenakshi Lekhi, Ajay Bhatt, and Anurag Thakur. While Secunderabad MP and former Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy is the only one from Telangana to be elevated to Cabinet rank. He has been named Minister for Culture, Tourism, and development for north-eastern region.

Meanwhile, two election watch bodies, National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) analyzed the latest affidavits of all 78 ministers (Including Prime Minister) from Lok Sabha 2019, current Rajya Sabha and assembly elections.

They studied the criminal, financial, and educational background details of the ministers in the cabinet. It significant to note that the current cabinet is a mixture of young and old, Out of the 78 ministers who represent the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, four fall in the age group of 31-40, 18 between 41 and 50, 29 between 51and 60 and 27 between 61and 70 age group. There are 11 (14%) Women Ministers in the cabinet

Criminal cases

Minister Nisith Pramanik, who represents Cooch Behar Constituency in West Bengal, has the highest cases registered against him. According to his affidavit, a total of 11 cases have been booked against him. He is followed by BJP minister John Barla from Allapurduars constituency with nine cases against him.

Out of the 78 Ministers, 33 (42%) Ministers have declared criminal case. Meanwhile, five ministers have been booked for promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, and more. They include home minister Amit Shah and minister Girraj Singh, Shobha Karandlaje, Nityanand Rai, Pralhad Joshi.

While seven ministers including Union Minister Nitin Jairam Gadkari has four cases against him for Illegal payments in connection with an election.

Education qualifications:

8th pass: 2

10th pass: 3

12th pass:

Graduate: 17

Graduate professional: 17

Post graduate: 21

Doctorate: 9

Diploma: 2