Gujarat Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms has come out with a report that throws light on the composition of Gujarat's new cabinet. Almost all of the ministers are crorepatis and a quarter of them are facing criminal cases.

As much as 94 per cent of the ministers in the sixteenth Gujarat Assembly, elections for which were conlcuded recently, are crorepatis. Nearly a quarter of them have criminal cases against them. Gujarat Election Watch, along with the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), has analysed the affidavits submitted to the Election Commission by the leaders.

The ADR report noted that 6 per cent of the ministers have declared that they face serious criminal charges against them. Out of the 17 MLAs that took the oath of office along with the Chief Minister of the state Bhupendrabhai Patel, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, possess enough resources to make them crorepatis.

The average of the assets of these ministers is Rs 32.7 crore. The richest cabinet minister in the new Gujarat government is Balvantsinh Chandasinh Rajput who won from the Sidhpur constituency. His net worth, as declared by him to the ECI, is Rs. 372.65 crore. Khabad Bhachubhai Maganbhai has the lowest declared assets in the whole cabinet at Rs. 92.85 Lakh. He is the only one who is not a crorepati, although only marginally.

Balvantsinh Rajput also happens to be the minister with the most liabilities. He has liabilities worth almost Rs. 13 Crore. As far as education of the ministers is concerned, a third of them hold degree between standard 8 to 12. Out of 17, eight ministers hold a graduate degree and three are Diploma holders.

Most of the ministers (82 per cent) are between 51 and years in age. While, there is only one woman minister in the cabinet - Bhanuben Babariya - who also happens to be the only minister from the scheduled caste community.

These 17 ministers had taken the oath of office in a star-studded high profile event. Chief Ministers of many BJP ruled states had been present in the ceremony. Apart from the Prime Minister and Home Minister, other national leaders of the BJP like Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani, and BJP National President of Organisation JP Nadda also attended the event.