The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has got its first chief minister in Bihar in Samrat Chaudhary, whose election affidavit reveals ownership of two firearms – an NP bore rifle worth Rs 4 lakh and a revolver worth Rs 2 lakh. The total value of his arms stands at Rs 6 lakh, nearly seven times the state’s per capita income of around Rs 75,000, highlighting the scale of personal assets declared by elected representatives.He is not alone. An analysis of election affidavits shows that 10 out of 28 chief ministers across India have declared ownership of firearms. Of these, six possess more than one weapon.Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.The chief ministers who have declared owning firearms include Chaudhary, Chhattisgarh’s Vishnu Deo Sai, Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren, Madhya Pradesh’s Mohan Yadav, Manipur’s Yumnam Khemchand Singh, Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann, Sikkim’s Prem Singh Tamang, Telangana’s A. Revanth Reddy, Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath, and Uttarakhan’s Pushkar Singh Dhami. The disclosures come from affidavits submitted during elections, which require candidates to declare movable assets, including firearms.A party-wise analysis shows that six of these chief ministers belong to the BJP, one to the Congress, one to the AAP, and two to regional parties.Region-wise, North and Central India dominate the list. In the North, the chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Punjab have reported owning firearms. In Central India, the chief ministers of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh have declared similar assets, indicating a geographical concentration in these regions.From the Northeast, the chief ministers of Sikkim and Manipur have reported owning weapons. In the South, the chief minister of Telangana has declared firearm ownership. In contrast, western India stands out as an outlier, with no chief ministers from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, or Goa reporting ownership of weapons in their affidavits.Deputy chief ministers across states are also significant firearm owners. An analysis shows that seven deputy chief ministers have declared owning weapons, with five reporting possession of more than one firearm.Those who have declared owning weapons include Arunachal Pradesh’s Chowna Mein, former Bihar deputy chief minister Vijay Sinha, Madhya Pradesh’s Rajendra Shukla and Jagdish Devda, Maharashtra’s Eknath Shinde, Uttar Pradesh’s Keshav Prasad Maurya, and Uttar Pradesh’s Brajesh Pathak. Except Shinde, all are affiliated with the BJP.Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh stand out in particular. In these states, both the chief minister and the deputy chief ministers – the three most senior members of the government – have declared ownership of weapons. The trend extends beyond state governments to the Union Cabinet. Senior leaders such as Rajnath Singh from Uttar Pradesh and Shivraj Singh Chouhan from Madhya Pradesh have declared owning weapons in their election affidavits. Singh, the Union defence minister, has declared a .32 bore firearm valued at around Rs 10,000, while Chouhan has reported owning a revolver worth approximately Rs 5,500.Overall, around a quarter of the Union Cabinet has declared ownership of firearms. Of the 30 cabinet ministers, eight have reported owning weapons-amounting according to affidavit data. Union ministers Jitan Ram Manjhi, Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Virendra Kumar, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Annapurna Devi have declared ownership of weapons.Suchak Patel is an independent writer.This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.