How rich are our chief ministers - the directly elected representatives of a state? Well, let's just say that even the ones professing to be the poorest CM among their peers across India earn several times the average income of their electorate. In fact, the richer the chief minister, the wider the gap between his/her assets and the state's per capita income.
Leading the pack is Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, whose total assets are worth almost 19,000 times his state's per capita income.
Even the states with the lowest per capita income are ruled by chief ministers whose average net worth is Rs 2.47 crore.
Chief ministers dubbed as the country's poorest, in their peer group, still best the average earnings of their electorate by a substantial margin. Case in point: Manik Sarkar, chief minister, Tripura, whose net assets are lower than the monthly salary of ICICI Bank MD & CEO Chanda Kochhar, is still 37 times better off than the average Tripura resident.
Interestingly, most of the super rich chief ministers prefer to park their money in cash and jewellery, rather than in real estate.