Arun Jaitley is richest minister; PM Narendra Modi has assets of Rs 1.26 crore

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assets worth Rs 1.26 crore, according to details of assets and liabilities of the Union Council of Ministers uploaded on the PMO website on Monday. While finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley turns out to be the richest with assets totaling Rs 72.10 crore, urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu has the least assets totalling Rs 20.45 lakh.

Modi’s assets include Rs 38,700 in cash, bank balance and deposits worth Rs 1,32,698 and Rs 17,00,927 respectively, Rs 20,000 in bonds, Rs 2,35,000 in NSC, Rs 1,99,031 in insurance policies and jewellery and precious items worth Rs 1,20,980. He owns a house in Gandhinagar worth Rs 1 crore.

Interestingly, Modi has made no mention of his spouse Jashodaben’s assets, only filling up the columns against her name with the words “not known”.

As many as 17 of the 22 Cabinet are crorepatis. The five non-crorepatis include Naidu with Rs 20.45 lakh worth of assets, food minister Ram Vilas Paswan with Rs 39.88 lakh assets, labour and employment minister Narendra Singh Tomar with assets worth Rs 44.90 lakh, health minister Harshvardhan with assets of Rs 48.54 lakh and chemicals and fertilisers minister Ananth Kumar with Rs 60.62 lakh in assets.

Figuring in the richie-rich club are women and child development minister Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who has assets to the tune of Rs 37.68 crore.

Minister of state for coal and power Piyush Goyal has declared assets worth Rs 31.67 crore, and following close is minorities affairs minister Najma Heptulla with assets of Rs 29.70 crore.Union home minister Rajnath Singh has declared assets of Rs 2.56 crore, while external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj owns assets worth Rs 2.73 crore, besides some agriculture land in Palwal, Haryana.

Law and telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has declared assets to the tune of Rs 14.91 crore, while food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal is worth Rs 12.82 crore. Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari has assets of Rs 3.34 crore.

While railways minister D V Sadananda Gowda is worth about Rs 4.34 crore, his junior Manoj Sinha has assets worth Rs 29.82 crore.

Water resources minister Uma Bharti has declared assets to the tune of Rs 1.62 crore, while tribal affairs minister Jual Oram, who is the tribal face of the Modi Cabinet, has assets to the tune of Rs 1.77 crore. Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajpati Raju has assets worth Rs 3.32 crore.

Micro, small and medium enterprises Minister Kalraj Mishra has assets to the tune of Rs 72.11 lakh, while Prakash Javadekar has assets of about Rs 1.05 crore.

Agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh has assets to the tune of Rs 2.47 crore, while social kustice and empowerment minister Thawarchand Gehlot has assets worth about Rs 2.08 crore.