Seven out of the 22 renominated ministers in NDA 3.0 have seen their total assets grow by over 50 per cent in the past five years, and 2 of them have assets over ₹100 crore.

Analysis of the value of assets of the NDA 3.0 Cabinet ministers reveals that Rao Inderjit Singh, Krishan Pal, Amit Shah, Piyush Goyal, and G Kishan Reddy are the top five repeat ministers in the new 18th Lok Sabha cabinet who grew their assets in the maximum between 2019 and 2024. Besides Shah, the other four ministers have been nominated to the Cabinet for a third time.

Among the 19 ministers whose assets have grown from 2019 to 2024, 18 are from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and one is Social Justice Minister Ramdas Athawale from the Republican Party of India (A). 

Nityanand Rai, Nirmala Sitharaman, and Hardeep Singh Puri are ministers whose assets have seen a decline from 2019 to 2024.

Data from the Association for Democratic Reforms reveals that Singh’s assets have experienced significant growth over the years. Entering the union government in 1999 as a member of the Congress party, Singh was a cabinet minister in the 2004 UPA government and his total assets were at ₹5.5 crore then. In 2013, he defected to the BJP, and in 2014, when he became a part of the NDA cabinet, his wealth rose to ₹25 crore. As of the 2024 polls, Singh’s total assets stand at ₹121 crore, and most of his assets are invested in immovable properties (₹82 crore).

The 67-year-old minister, Krishan Pal, currently the Minister of State for Power and Heavy Industries, has been active in politics since 1994. As an MLA in the 2009 Haryana assembly election, his total assets were at ₹7.16 crore, and this increased to ₹29.6 crore in 2014 when he served as the Minister of Shipping, Road Transport, and Highways. By 2019, while serving as the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, his assets had grown to ₹36.9 crore. His total assets stands at ₹62 crore as of 2024 and this includes eight agricultural lands valued at ₹6.4 crore and two commercial buildings worth ₹9 crore.

Amit Shah ranks third in terms of asset accumulation among politicians. His political journey began with his election as an MLA in the late 1997 Gujarat assembly election. By the 2007 Assembly polls, his total assets were valued at ₹5.5 crore, which increased to ₹11.7 crore by the 2012 Assembly. Shah served as BJP’s president from 2014 to 2019, and his assets grew to ₹40 crore in this period. As of 2024, a substantial portion of Shah’s assets of ₹65 crore is invested in bonds, shares, and debentures amounting to ₹37 crore.

G Kishan Reddy began his political career in Andhra Pradesh, representing the BJP during the 2004 period. His total assets were around ₹4 crore when he was elected as an MLA in 2009. By 2019, his assets had grown to ₹8.1 crore when he became the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs. Currently, his assets have increased to ₹19.2 crore, and he serves as the Union Minister of Coal and Mines.

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