Out of the 30 chief ministers in the country, 12, or 40%, have criminal cases registered against them. Among these, 10, or 33%, face serious charges such as attempted murder, kidnapping, and bribery.

Telangana's CM Revanth Reddy has the highest number of cases registered against him, totaling 89. This information has come to light from a report by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which works for electoral reforms.

Report emerged at a time when govt has introduced three bills

This report has emerged at a time when the government has introduced three bills, which will disqualify the Prime Minister, chief ministers, and ministers from their positions if they are taken into custody for 30 days on serious criminal charges.

ADR has prepared this report by analyzing the affidavits of all the current 30 chief ministers of states and union territories. The data has been taken from affidavits filed before contesting the last election.

CMs with the most cases against them

1. Revanth Reddy

Congress, Telangana – 89 cases

2. M.K. Stalin

DMK, Tamil Nadu – 47 cases

3. Chandrababu Naidu

TDP, Andhra Pradesh – 19 cases

4. Siddaramaiah

Congress, Karnataka – 13 cases

5. Hemant Soren

JMM, Jharkhand – 5 cases

6. Devendra Fadnavis

BJP, Maharashtra – 4 cases

7. Sukhvinder Singh

Congress, Himachal Pradesh – 4 cases

8. Pinarayi Vijayan

CPI(M), Kerala – 2 cases

Income of unrecognized political parties increased by 223% In a report from July 2025, ADR stated that the income of registered unrecognized political parties (RUPP) that receive nominal votes in the country increased by 223% in 2022-23. There are 2764 RUPP parties in the country.

More than 73% of these (2025 parties) have not made their financial records public. The remaining 739 registered unrecognized parties have shared their records. The report analyzes these parties.

The report reveals that the total income of such 5 parties in Gujarat was ?2316 crore. Among these, the income for one year was ?1158 crore. However, in the 3 elections held over the past 5 years, they received only 22 thousand votes.

These five parties fielded a total of 17 candidates in two Lok Sabha and one Assembly elections between 2019 and 2024, but none could win. Four of these parties were registered after 2018.

What is the Association for Democratic Reforms?

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that works to promote electoral and political reforms in India. It was established in the year 1999 by some professors and alumni of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad.

The aim of ADR is to make Indian democracy more transparent, accountable, and responsible. It specifically works on making public the background, income-expenditure, and criminal records of political parties and leaders.

Main functions of ADR

• ADR analyzes the information on criminal cases, assets, education, etc., provided in the nomination papers of candidates before every election and prepares a report.
• This organization collects information on the income, expenses, and donations of political parties through RTI and Election Commission documents and presents it to the public.
• It conducts a comparative study of how much the assets of MPs and MLAs have increased during their tenure.
• ADR educates voters and runs campaigns demanding election transparency.