‘Richest’ CM Chandrababu Naidu’s draws almost entirely on one asset, Mamata records sharpest decline

Four CMs declared zero income – among them Arunachal’s Pema Khandu, who is the second richest of all CMs, incidentally. The other three are Nagaland’s Neiphiu Rio, Sikkim’s P S Tamang, and Mizoram’s Lalduhoma.

The CMs with the highest annual income in the most recent available financial year are the BJP’s newly elected Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, at Rs 38.74 lakh, Meghalaya’s Conrad Sangma, at Rs 29.58 lakh, and the DMK’s Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin, at Rs 28.78 lakh.

Only nine of the 31 CMs have listed professions as sources of income in their affidavits; for 22, this is either politics or social work.

A breakdown of the assets of the three CMs with the most assets, and three with the least:

Highest assets

As per Naidu’s latest affidavit (elections in Andhra Pradesh were held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls this year), a vast majority of his assets are movable, at Rs 810 crore. His most valuable assets are his shares in Heritage Foods Limited, a dairy company and a household name in Andhra, valued at Rs 764 crore.

The company was founded by Naidu in 1992, soon after Manmohan Singh, as Union Finance Minister, liberalised the dairy sector and invited private investors to set up units. Until then, the dairy sector was controlled by cooperatives. Naidu’s was among the first 100 private companies in the country to venture into milk procurement and sale after liberalisation.

Now valued at Rs 4,400 crore, the company’s start was, however, humble, says M Sambasiva Rao, the president of Heritage Foods. Its initial investment was just Rs 50 lakh. “At the time 20,000 litres were procured from farmers per day,” Rao said. Currently, Heritage procures 16 lakh litres of milk from farmers spread across the country.

After serving as its managing director from 1992 to 1994, Naidu handed the reins over to his wife Bhuwaneswari, who now manages it with daughter-in-law Nara Brahmani.

“The company is valued well because its performance has been stellar. We have procurement and distribution networks which are highly robust,” Rao said.

Among Naidu’s other major movable assets are Rs 34.28 crore in loans given to companies and individuals. The only vehicle owned by him as per his affidavit is an Ambassador car purchased in 1994.

Besides his movable assets, Naidu also has immoveable assets worth Rs 121 crore. Agricultural land in Serilingampally, Hyderabad, owned by his wife is their most valuable property at Rs 55 crore. They own residential buildings worth Rs 35.54 crore in Hyderabad and Chittoor district, and commercial buildings worth Rs 30.1 crore in Naidu’s home constituency of Kuppam.

The second among CMs with the most assets, worth Rs 333 crore, is Arunachal’s Pema Khandu. Of these, Rs 175 crore of assets are immovable. His most valuable assets are his commercial properties, worth Rs 143 crore, including a hotel each in Tawang and Dirang, and part of a property in Delhi. Among his other properties are Rs 19.35 crore in non-agricultural land, residential buildings worth Rs 8.14 crore, and Rs 4.3 crore in agricultural land. While most of his properties are concentrated in Arunachal, he owns several properties in Delhi and Gurgaon.

His most valuable movable assets, totalling Rs 164 crore, are his bank deposits, amounting to Rs 133 crore, of which Rs 104 crore is in a single fixed deposit. Khandu has Rs 27.31 crore in bonds and shares. He also owns 12 cars worth Rs 1.88 crore, and jewellery, including gold, worth Rs 1.6 crore.

At the same time, Khandu is among four CMs who have declared zero income. And tops the list in terms of liabilities, at Rs 180 crore.

The next richest, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, who declared assets worth Rs 52 crore, holds Rs 30.62 crore in immovable assets and Rs 21.32 crore in movable assets. His most valuable movable asset is the Rs 10.1 crore he has given to several individuals and companies in loans and advances. Besides this, he has Rs 7.14 crore in bank deposits, Rs 2.42 crore in shares and bonds, and Rs 97.55 lakh in jewellery. He has declared one car worth Rs 28 lakh.

His most valuable immovable assets are the residential properties he owns in Bengaluru and Mysuru, worth Rs 13.66 crore. He also owns non-agricultural land worth Rs 8.34 crore in Mysuru, a commercial building in Bengaluru worth Rs 7.33 crore, and agricultural land worth Rs 1.29 crore in Mysuru.

A majority of his immovable assets, at Rs 20.86 crore, are listed as owned by his wife Parvati, who along with Siddaramaiah has been the subject of the alleged Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam. The BJP has alleged that MUDA illegally allotted land to Parvati.

Lowest assets

The CM with the lowest worth of assets in the country at Rs 16.72 lakh, Mamata Banerjee owns a majority of it in the form bank deposits of Rs 13.53 lakh, including an account labelled “election expenses” with Rs 1.51 lakh. While she owns no immovable properties, her next largest asset is Rs 1.87 lakh listed under loan and advances, of which Rs 1.86 lakh is her tax deducted at source (TDS) receivable for 2019-20; her income that year was declared as Rs 10.34 lakh. Banerjee does not own a car as per her affidavit, and has Rs 43,837 worth of jewellery. She also has zero liabilities

National Conference vice-president and Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah has the second lowest assets at Rs 55.24 lakh. He too does not own any immovable assets or have any liabilities, and has declared Rs 30 lakh in jewellery as his most valuable movable assets, followed by Rs 24.44 lakh in bank deposits. In 2023-2024, he declared earnings of Rs 14.52 lakh with his primary source of income listed as pension as a former MLA and MP.

CPI(M) leader and Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, at Rs 1.19 crore, is the only CM among three CMs with the lowest assets who owns immovable property. Of his overall Rs 1.19 crore in assets, a majority comprises immovable assets, valued at Rs 86.95 lakh. His most valuable asset is agricultural land worth Rs 51.6 lakh in Kerala. He also owns a residential building worth Rs 35.35 lakh. Among his Rs 31.83 lakh in movable assets are Rs 22.21 lakh in bank deposits, Rs 3.31 lakh in bonds and shares, Rs 3.3 lakh in gold, and Rs 2.89 lakh in postal savings. Vijayan, too, does not own a vehicle or have any liabilities as per his affidavit.

Change in assets

Between their latest affidavits and the ones filed by them in the election preceding that by five years, six of the 31 CMs registered a decline in assets.

Some of the next highest increases were recorded by BJP Goa CM Pramod Sawant at 236% between 2017 and 2022, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s (JMM) Hemant Soren at 198% between 2019 and 2024, BJP’s Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma at 171% between 2016 and 2021, and National People’s Party’s (NPP) Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma at 164% between 2018 and 2023.

Naidu, the richest CM, saw the highest absolute increase in assets at Rs 263 crore, or 39.4%, between 2019 and 2024.

Banerjee, in contrast, is among the six CMs who saw their assets decline. The value of her assets, in fact, saw the sharpest decline among all the CMs, falling by 49.5% between 2016 and 2021 as per her affidavit. After her, JD(U) supremo and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s saw the biggest decline in assets, at 46.8% (between 2015 and 2020), while the BJP’s Manipur CM N Biren Singh showed a decline of 3.12% (between 2017 and 2022), Aam Aadmi Party’s Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann at 1% (between 2017 and 2022), and BJP’s Tripura CM Manik Saha at 0.5% (between 2018 and 2023). The sixth CM whose assets showed a decline is Omar Abdullah, who became the J&K CM in 2024. Between 2014, when he previously contested the state elections, to 2024, his assets fell by 15.9%.