The newly sworn-in union council of ministers is a millionaire club. As many as 47 ministers in Team Manmohan have declared assets of over Rs One Crore.
The newly sworn-in union council of ministers is a millionaire club. As many as 47 ministers in Team Manmohan have declared assets of over Rs One Crore, with Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel being the richest of them all. The high profile Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Gondiya MP has assets worth a staggering Rs 89.9 crores!
According to data collected by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) from the affidavits of 66 of the 79 ministers, the average declared assets of ministers in the Manmohan Singh government is about Rs 7.63 crores.
A look at the declared net worth of each of these ministers reveals that the Congress party, which has the maximum share of ministerial berths in the government (60 out of 79) also has the highest number of 'crorepati' ministers.
Railway minister Mamata Banerjee's All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) is the 'poorest' partner in the council of ministers with only one crorepati member- Barrackpur MP Dinesh Trivedi with assets worth over Rs 2.72 crores. Incidentally, Banerjee's own declared assets are just over Rs 4.73 lakhs and she's the poorest member of the union council of ministers.
And they don't call it the Congress-led UPA government for nothing. The Congress beats it other allies in the coalition when it comes to having not just the maximum number of ministers but also the highest number of crorepati ministers too. Of the Congress's 60 ministers in the union council, as many as 38 have declared assets of over Rs One crore. In fact, in the top ten richest ministers, eight are from the Congress, with only Patel and minister for chemicals & fertilizers, Dravida Munnettra Kazhagham's (DMK) MK Alagiri (with assets worth over Rs 19 crore) being the exceptions.
The other allies in the coalition too have their 'fair share' of multi-millionaires. For instance, of the DMK's seven ministers, five are crorepatis, with the exceptions being minister of state for health S Gandhiselvan (assets worth over Rs 40 lakh) and minister of state for finance SS Palanimanickam (assets worth over Rs 75 lakh).
Likewise, of the three NCP ministers in the government, two are crorepatis- Patel and NCP chief and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar (assets worth over Rs 8.7 crore). The exception from the NCP camp is minister of state for rural development Agatha Sangma (assets worth over Rs 66 lakhs).
The sole minister from the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference, Dr Farooq Abdullah- union minister for new/renewable energy has declared assets worth over Rs 9.7 crore.
Of the Congress's allies who have been given ministerial berths, only Muslim League's E Ahamed, minister of state for railways, fails to strike the crorepati bracket. Ahamed has declared assets worth over Rs 41 lakh.
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