Delhi’s new Cabinet has 5 crorepati ministers; 4 of 7 facing criminal cases

Delhi’s newly-elected Cabinet assumed charge on February 17, a day after they were sworn-in at the iconic Ramlila Maidan in the national capital.

Besides Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Cabinet comprises six other ministers: Satyendra Kumar Jain, Gopal Rai, Manish Sisodia, Imran Hussain, Rajendra Pal Gautam and Kailash Gahlot.

While Kejriwal himself has not taking charge of any department. Portfolios have been divided into the remaining six ministers.

By law, the strength of the Council of Ministers can be only 10 percent of the total number of seats on the Legislative Assembly. Hence, Delhi can have only seven ministers.

Also read: Meet the ministers in Kejriwal's new government

Four of the seven ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves, according to an analysis by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). Of these, three declared having serious criminal cases against themselves.

Serious criminal cases are categories as offences for which are non-bailable and have a maximum punishment is of five years or more. These offences may be related to crimes against women, assault, murder, kidnap, rape and offences under Prevention of Corruption Act, among others.

Four of the seven ministers are aged between 31 and 50 years. The other three are aged between 51 and 60 years. There are no women in the Delhi Cabinet.

As many as five of the seven ministers declared assets of worth at least Rs 1 crore. The average assets of the Delhi’s ministers is Rs 8.9 crore.

Gahlot has the highest declared total assets of around Rs 46 crore. Among these ministers, Rai has the lowest declared total assets of Rs 90 lakh.

Six of the seven ministers have declared their educational qualification to be ‘graduate’ or above.  Sisodia has declared that he has a diploma in journalism.

Also read | 43 MLAs with criminal cases, 74% crorepatis: How Delhi’s Legislative Assembly is stacked now

Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) bagged 62 of the total 70 seats in the Assembly election held on February 8. Its main challenger, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), won the remaining eight seats. The Congress failed to open its account for the second consecutive assembly election in Delhi.

In general, the number of crorepatis Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) have increased. In 2014, a total of 44 MLAs (63 percent) with declared financial assets of Rs 1 crore or more had won the election. According to an ADR report, this number has risen to 52 (74 percent) in 2020.

While, 45 out of AAP’s 62 MLAs (about 73 percent) are crorepatis, seven of the eight BJP MLAs (about 88 percent) are also crorepatis.