When Dorjee Khandu contested the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly elections last time, his assets amounted to Rs 3.19 crore. In the five years since — a little over two years of them as the state’s Chief Minister — Khandu has seen his assets soar, to more than 15 times that amount.

The soft-spoken, 54-year-old Chief Minister now has assets, including cash, to the tune of Rs 43.92 crore. He is also richer by one more wife — his fourth — since the 2004 Assembly elections. With tribal customary laws in Arunachal Pradesh permitting polygamy, Dorjee now equals predecessor Gegong Apang in terms of number of wives.

Dorjee, who has studied only up to Class VIII in Bhoti language, belongs to the Monpa Tribe and has four sons and two daughters from his four wives. He was appointed the fifth chief minister of Arunachal on April 9, 2007, replacing Apang, who at the time held the record for being the second longest-serving chief minister in any state after Jyoti Basu of West Bengal.

In 2004, Khandu won from the Mukto Assembly segment, choosing to stand from the constituency for the fourth time. This time, he has been elected unopposed as there is no contestant against him.

And this isn’t the only area where lady luck has been kind to him. In five years, his cash and bank deposits, including various financial instruments, have seen a rise from Rs 2.05 crore to Rs 16.25 crore; while the land he and his spouses own has gone up from 10 acres (agricultural and non-agricultural) in 2004 to 19 acres now. If Khandu owned five buildings in 2004, he has six now, including one worth Rs 37.50 lakh in Gurgaon near Delhi.

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