75 percent of Maharashtra ministers face criminal cases, says report

The Association for Democratic Reforms said in its report that 75 percent of the ministers in Maharashtra have declared criminal cases against them. The state has 20 ministers, including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, out of which 15 have declared criminal cases against them in their election affidavits.

Shinde expanded his cabinet earlier this month. ADR examined the election affidavits the ministers had filed before the 2019 Assembly elections.  15 (75 percent) ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves and 13 (65 percent) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

All the ministers are crorepatis and the average value of their assets is Rs 47.45 crore.

Mangal Prabhat Lodha, MLA of Malabar Hill constituency, is the richest among them with assets worth Rs 441.65 crore. The minister with the lowest declared total assets is Bhumare Sandipanrao Asaram from the Paithan constituency with assets worth Rs 2.92 crore, ADR said.

There is no woman in the council of ministers.

Eight ministers have declared their educational qualification to be between 10th and 12th standard, while 11 (55 percent) have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. One minister holds a diploma.

Four ministers are aged between 41-50 years and the remaining between 51-70 years.

Eknath Shinde toppled the Uddhav Thackeray government last month after leading a rebellion of MLAs over the demand for an alliance with the BJP. He later became the Chief Minister of Maharashtra with BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy. Shinde and Thackeray are fighting a legal battle over the party's official symbol. 

With inputs from PTI