Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Thursday inducted 24 new ministers yesterday taking the total strength of the new council of ministers to 25 including him. In possibly the first such instance in the country’s politics, the entire cabinet was changed including the chief minister. A similar change had taken place in Kerala earlier this year but chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had retained the post. A report released today by the Association of Democratic Reforms following the reconstitution of the Gujarat cabinet claims that of the 25 new ministers, 19 are crorepatis while seven of them have criminal cases registered against them. The findings of the ADR report were based on an analysis of the self-sworn affidavits of all 25 Ministers including the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Out of the 25 ministers analysed, 19 (76%) are crorepatis, the report said, adding that Rushikesh Ganeshbhai Patel topped the list with assets worth Rs 14.95 crore followed by Jagdish Panchal who holds Rs 14.75 crore. Of the two women ministers, Manisha Rajiv Vakil’s assets are worth Rs 49 lakh while Nimishaben Manharsinh Suthar’s assets are worth Rs 47 lakh. The minister with the lowest declared total assets is Chauhan Arjunsinh Udesinh from Mehmedabad constituency with assets worth Rs. 12.57 lakh. The average assets of 25 ministers analysed is Rs 3.95 crore, said the report.

Bhupendra Patel’s new cabinet has 7 (28%) ministers with criminal cases against themselves while 3 (12%) ministers have serious criminal cases against themselves. Pradipbhai Khanabhai Parmar has three cases registered against him while Jitu Vaghani and Harsh Sanghvi are facing four cases each.

Of the 25 ministers, 13 (52%) have declared their educational qualification to be between 8th and 12th standard while 11 (44%) ministers have declared possessing an educational qualification of graduate or above and one minister is just literate. In fact, the chief minister himself has mentioned senior secondary as his highest qualification. However, several media reports have claimed that he had completed Diploma in Civil Engineering. The education minister in the cabinet, Jitu Vaghani, is a law graduate.

A total of 13 (52%) ministers have declared their age to be between 31-50 years while 12 (48%) ministers have declared their age to be between 51- 70 years.