More Bihar ministers with criminal cases now

While 68 per cent of the ministers in Nitish Kumar’s earlier ministry in alliance with RJD and Congress had criminal cases against them, as many as 76 per cent of the ministers in his present ministry with BJP have criminal records, reveals a study by the Association for Democratic Reforms.

Nitish Kumar, who broke off his alliance with Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) on the issue of corruption, formed a new cabinet on Thursday, comprising leaders from his own party JD(U) and the new-found ally BJP.

Based on the analysis of the self-sworn affidavits filed by the ministers, the ADR report says 22 out of 29 ministers in Bihar are facing criminal cases.

The highlights of the report are as follows:

• In Nitish Kumar’s previous cabinet which comprised leaders from JDU, Congress and RJD, 68 per cent of them faced criminal charges.
• There were 19 ministers out of 28 in the previous ministry who faced criminal charges.
• Out of the 22 ministers in the present ministry who face criminal cases, 9 have serious criminal cases against them.
• As many as seven ministers face charges amounting to murder and attempt to murder.
• Four ministers have theft charges and robbery cases against them, while two of them have charges of financial fraud.
• Out of the 29 ministers, 21 are crorepatis while earlier the number was one more at 22.
• Two ministers of Nitish Kumar’s cabinet, who have the highest declared assets come from BJP with the Lakhisarai MLA Vijay Kumar Sinha declaring total assets worth ₹15.64 crore. Suresh Kumar Sharma also from the BJP declared ₹11 crore while the Munger JD(U) leader and a close confidant of Nitish Kumar, Rajiv Ranjan Singh declared the third highest assets of ₹5 crore.