ADR: According to the new report of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch, 40 percent of the Chief Ministers of the country have declared criminal cases against themselves. The report analyzed the self-affidavits of all 30 current Chief Ministers of State Assemblies and Union Territories. It found that 12 Chief Ministers (40%) have criminal cases registered against them.
Cases of serious crimes against 10 Chief Ministers
According to the report of ADR and National Election Watch, 10 Chief Ministers in the country are accused of serious crimes like attempt to murder, kidnapping, bribery and criminal intimidation. Among these, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy tops the list with 89 cases. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin is at number two, against whom 47 cases are registered.
There are 19 cases registered against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, 13 cases against Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and 5 cases against Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu have declared four cases each. At the same time, two cases are registered against Kerala's Pinarayi Vijayan and one case against Punjab's Bhagwant Mann.
Constitution Amendment Bill of the Central  Government
This report has come at a time when the political atmosphere is quite heated. The central  government has recently introduced three bills in Parliament, which provide for automatic removal of the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and Ministers from office. If they remain in custody for 30 days or more on charges punishable with at least five years of imprisonment, they can be removed from office.
The government has described this move as necessary to stop criminalization in politics. At the same time, the opposition has termed it as an attempt to destabilize non-BJP ruled states. Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi said on Twitter that the best way to destabilise the opposition is to incite biased central agencies to arrest opposition chief ministers and arbitrarily remove them even after they lose electorally.