Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan holds the primary cabinet assembly after the swearing-in ceremony of the LDF authorities in Thiruvananthapuram.
Twelve ministers in the Kerala cabinet have declared criminal cases in opposition to themselves in their election affidavits, based on a report by ballot rights group Association for Democratic Reforms. Kerala Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed self-sworn affidavits of 20 of the 21 ministers, together with that of Pinarayi Vijayan who was sworn-in as chief minister on May 20.
The affidavit of CPI (M) chief and minister V Sivankutty was not analysed because of unavailability of an entire and correctly scanned affidavit on the Election Commission’s web site, the report stated.
According to the report, 12 or 60 per cent ministers have declared criminal cases in opposition to themselves whereas 5 or 25 per cent ministers have declared critical criminal cases in opposition to themselves.
Out of the affidavit of 20 ministers analysed, 13 or 65 per cent are ‘crorepatis’ and the typical property of 20 ministers analysed is Rs 2.55 crores, it stated.
“The minister with the highest declared total assets is V Abdurahiman from the Tanur assembly constituency with assets worth Rs 17.17 crores. The minister with the lowest declared total assets is P Prasad from the Cherthala constituency with assets worth Rs. 14.18 lakhs,” the report stated.
It stated that eight or 40 per cent ministers have declared their academic qualification to be between lessons eight and 12, whereas 12 ministers have declared having an academic qualification of graduate stage or above.
“A total of 13 (65 per cent) ministers have declared their age to be between 41-60 years, while seven (35 per cent) ministers have declared their age to be between 61-80 years and out of 20 ministers, three are women,” the report stated.
The second Pinarayi Vijayan authorities with a 21-minister cabinet, together with the chief minister, was sworn-in on May 20.
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