According to ADR report, 90% of the new 243 MLAs of Bihar are crorepatis. The poorest MLA has assets of ₹6.53 lakh. This analysis shows the increasing influence of money and economic inequality in electoral politics.
After the decisive results of Bihar Assembly Elections 2025, the path for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to return to power in the state has become clear. Amid this political transformation, a detailed analysis released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Bihar Election Watch has highlighted the economic picture of the 243 newly elected MLAs who reached the House. The most important finding of this analysis is that almost 90% of the MLAs in the new assembly of Bihar are crorepatis.
The poorest faces among the flood of millionaires
Amidst this economic influx of newly elected MLAs, some faces have been successful in reaching the House even from the most ordinary backgrounds. Murari Paswan, BJP candidate from Peerpainti seat, has become the poorest member of the House, whose total assets have been recorded at just ₹6.53 lakh. Of these, his movable assets are ₹1.53 lakh and immovable assets are ₹5 lakh.
The MLA with the second least assets is BJP’s Mahesh Paswan from Agiaon in Bhojpur, whose total assets are ₹8.55 lakh, while at the third place is BJP’s Sujit Kumar from Rajangaon, whose assets are reported to be around ₹11 lakh. These figures underline the presence of some representatives with common economic backgrounds amidst the dominance of millionaires.
Property boom and bust
An interesting fact related to economic data is related to former RJD MLA Ramvriksh Kadam. He was the poorest MLA in the 2020 elections, when his net worth was only ₹70,000. However, by 2025 his wealth saw a huge jump and crossed ₹85 lakh. Despite such a rapid increase in wealth, he could not succeed in saving his seat of Aloli this time.
Heavy liability and debt of strongmen
The analysis has also revealed the fact that some MLAs have reached the House whose assets are worth crores, but their liabilities (debt) are many times more than that. At the top of this list is the name of RJD’s Shambhu Nath Yadav, whose total assets are Rs 12 crore, but his liabilities are more than Rs 66 crore. Moreover, Ananth Singh, who has the Baahubali image from Mokama, has a net worth of ₹100 crore, which includes the properties of his wife Neelam Devi, while he has liabilities of ₹25 crore.
Serious questions arise on democracy
These figures of the new assembly of Bihar once again raise the question as to what the economic reality of the representatives doing politics in the name of the public points to. When 90% of the representatives are millionaires, the question becomes inevitable: Is democracy really the voice of the common man, or is the race from floor to floor now driven solely by capital? The new Bihar Assembly is clearly indicating that financial capacity has become a critical factor for electoral success, which has widened the economic gap between the common voters and their representatives.