Karnataka's Shivkumar Tops List Of India's Wealthiest Chief Ministers, Assets Over Rs14 Billion

2026-06-04 11:22:03

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Chief ministers of India 's southern states have one thing going for them: their enormous wealth, which makes their counterparts in the rest of the country look insignificant, political experts noted.

D.K. Shivkumar, the new chief minister of Karnataka, has emerged as the richest of the lot, with assets in excess of Rs14 billion (about Dh535 million).

Recommended For You

In contrast, the richest in the Hindi heartland is Madhya Pradesh's BJP CM Mohan Yadav (Rs420 million, Dh16 million), and the 'poorest' in India was the former West Bengal chief minister, Mamta Bannerjee (assets of Rs1.5 million, Dh57,000), followed by Jammu & Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah (Rs5.5 million, Dh210,000).

The combined net worth of Shivkumar and his dependents, according to his 2023 assembly poll affidavit, added up to Rs14.13 billion, up from Rs8.4 billion (Dh321 million) in the 2018 elections. The chief minister has been battling allegations of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, and also income-tax cases and raids over the years.

Stay up to date with the latest news. Follow KT on WhatsApp Channels

Meanwhile, the second-richest chief minister in India is veteran Andhra politician N. Chandrababu Naidu, whose assets add up to Rs9.31 billion (about Dh355.8 million). He has also battled a lot of corruption charges in the past, even being arrested in 2023 on those grounds.

Joseph Vijay, the new chief minister of Tamil Nadu, and a former superstar, comes next with assets of Rs6.48 billion (about Dh247.66 million). Two other southern chief ministers follow him: Revnath Reddy of Telangana (who also faces investigations by India's Enforcement Directorate), and V.D. Satheesan, the new chief minister of Kerala.

The state's Vigilance and Anti-corruption Bureau (VACB), under the previous Communist Party Marxist (CPM) regime had suggested a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe against Satheesan for alleged irregularities. But nothing much emerged from it.

Other chief ministers with much lesser assets include Hemant Soren of Jharkhand (Rs250 million, Dh9.55 million), the BJP's Samrat Choudhary in Bihar (Rs110 million, Dh4.2 million), Sukhvinder Singh Sukhi of the Congress in Himachal Pradesh (Rs78.1 million, Dh2.98 million), Nayab Singh Saini, the BJP CM in Haryana (Rs58 million, Dh2.22 million) and BJP's Delhi CM, Rekha Gupta (Rs50 million, Dh1.91 million).

Being a 'crorepati' (one crore is 10 million) has been and remains a dream for hundreds of millions of Indians. Just a little over 350,000 individual taxpayers in the country reported an annual income exceeding Rs10 million (Dh382,000).

But surprisingly, of the 543 elected representatives in Parliament, there are 504 'crorepatis' in the 18th Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament), according to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). And one out of every three candidates contesting the 2024 elections had assets of Rs10 million or more; of the winners in the general elections, a little over nine out of 10 were 'crorepatis'.

The number of affluent members of parliament (MPs) has been on the rise, according to the association. It shot up from 58 per cent (in 2009), to 82 per cent five years later, and 88 per cent in 2019 to 93 per cent in the 2024 elections.

The multi-millionaires were well-represented in most political parties: 95 per cent of the 240 BJP MPs are 'crorepatis; 92 of the 99 MPs of the Congress are in the category, and all 16 Telugu Desam Party (TDP) winners and 16 Janata Dal (United) MPs are in the affluent category.

In the case of other parties (with 20 or more MPs), the figure was over 90 per cent, according to ADR. Surprisingly, more than half (52 per cent) of CPM candidates fielded in the elections were also 'crorepatis', according to the ADR.