About 67% MLAs of one of the poorest states in the country are crorepatis with the richest among them owning assets worth nearly Rs 41 crore, an ADR report showed.
In the Bihar legislative assembly, 160 out of 240 MLAs own assets worth over Rs 1 crore.
The Janata Dal United [JD(U)] and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) have some of the richest MLAs. 102 of the 149 MLAs of both parties combined are crorepatis.The BJP has the third-highest number of 33 crorepati MLAs out of a total 54 while the Congress has 17 out of 25 MLAs owing over a crore's worth of assets
Among other parties, only 2 Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) MLAs and 1 All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MLA are crorepatis.
Bihar’s richest current MLA, Poonam Devi Yadav from Khagaria, has assets amounting to over Rs 41 crore, almost 14 times as much as the average worth of assets per sitting MLA.
Ranking second on the list is Bhagalpur’s Ajeet Sharma with assets worth Rs 40 crore. His movable assets amount to Rs 3.7 crore while his immovable assets such as land, property and estates are worth Rs 36.7 crore.
Anant Kumar Singh, the MLA re-contesting from Mokama registered total assets worth Rs 28 crore with land and property constituting nearly Rs 25 crore of it. The remaining Rs 2.8 crore are movable assets.
Incidentally, Anant Kumar Singh is also the richest candidate contesting in phase 1 of the 2020 Bihar assembly elections with his total assets swelling three times to Rs 68 crore. Kumar also has the highest number of criminal cases registered against him.
In sharp contrast, the MLA from Raniganj, Achmit Rishidev, registered the least amount of assets at Rs 9.8 lakh. Both, Poonam Devi Yadav and Achmit Rishidev belong to the Nitish Kumar led JD(U).