Women's vote decisive in Bihar, but only 12% winners are women -Governance Now

Women's vote decisive in Bihar, but only 12% winners are women

ADR Analysis: 130(53%) winning candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves

GN Bureau | November 15, 2025

#Gender #Elections #Politics #Bihar

(Photo: Governance Now)

The stunning victory of the NDA in the Bihar assembly elections is largely credited to the women voters who registered a far higher turnout than men, but out of the 243 winning candidates analysed, only 29 (12%) winning candidates are women. Still, this is an improvement over 2020, when out of 241 MLAs analysed, 26 (11%) MLAs were women.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Bihar Election Watch analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all 243 winning candidates in the Bihar 2025 Assembly Elections, and found that 130 (53%) winning candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. Out of 241 MLAs analysed during the 2020 polls, 163 (68%) MLAs had declared criminal cases against themselves.

The full analysis can be accessed here: https://adrindia.org/content/Winners-Report-Bihar-2025

As many as 102 (42%) winners have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. For 2020, the respective numbers were 123 (51%). Six winning candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section-302) against themselves and 19 winning candidates have declared cases related to Attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) against themselves. Nine winning candidates have declared cases related to crime against women.

Party Wise Winning Candidates with Criminal Cases:
54 (61%) out of 89 winning candidates from BJP, 31(36%) out of 85 winning candidates from JD(U), 18 (72%) out of 25 winning candidates from RJD, 11(58%) out of 19 winning candidates from Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), 4 (67%) out of 6 winning candidates from INC, 5(100%) out of 5 winning candidates from AIMIM, 1(20%) out of 5 winning candidates from HAM(S), 1(25%) out of 4 winning candidates from Rashtriya Lok Morcha, 2(100%) out of 2 winning candidates from CPI(ML)(L), 1(100%) out of 1 winning candidate from CPI(M), 1(100%) out of 1 winning candidate from Indian Inclusive Party and 1 (100%) out of 1 winning candidate from BSP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Financial Background:
218 (90%) winners are crorepatis. (2020: 194 or 81%)
Party-wise crorepati winning candidates:
78(92%) out of 85 winning candidates from JD(U), 77(87%) out of 89 winning candidates from BJP, 24 (96%) out of 25 winning candidates from RJD, 16(84%) out of 19 winning candidates from Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), 6(100%) out of 6 Winning candidates from INC, 5(100%) out of 5 Winning candidates from AIMIM, 4(80%) out of 5 Winning candidates from HAM(S), 4(100%) out of 4 Winning candidates from Rashtriya Lok Morcha, 1(100%) out of 1 Winning candidate from CPI(M), 1(100%) out of 1 Winning candidate from Indian Inclusive Party, 1(100%) out of 1 Winning candidate from BSP and 1(50%) out of 2 winning candidates from CPI(ML)(L) have declared assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore.

Education:
84(35%) winning candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between 5th pass and 12th pass while 147 (60%) winning candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate and above. 5 winning candidates are Diploma holders and 7 winning candidates have declared their education just literate.

Age:
38(16%) winning candidates have declared their age to be between 25 and 40 years while 143 (59%) winning candidates have declared their age to be between 41 and 60 years. There are 62 (26%) winning candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years.

Comments

Other News

Capabilities, aspirations of India’s youth limitless: Modi

The capabilities and aspirations of India’s youth are limitless, prime minister Narendra Modi said in his remarks to the media at the start of monsoon session of the parliament on Monday. "In the past month, the country has achieved many milestones, filling citiz

India gets the first hydrogen train

Prime minister Narendra Modi on Friday laid the foundation stone and dedicated to the nation various development projects worth around ₹14,700 crore in Jind, Haryana. The PM positioned the city as a shining reflection of the good governance model. Emphasizing that the entire Haryana

Climate change is stealing sleep

Climate change has at least doubled the temperature-related sleep loss across 1,338 major cities worldwide over the past five decades, highlighting an emerging but often overlooked public health consequence of rising global temperatures. A new study by Climate Central estimates that between 2020 and

Cabinet approves Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme

The union cabinet chaired by PM Narendra Modi has approved the Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme (MPMS) with a budgetary outlay of Rs 62,500 crore. It aims to further scale up the production, deepen domestic value addition, strengthen supply chain resilience, enhance global competitiveness. It

Building infrastructure is only half the job

Recent stories of stolen railway wires, disappearing communication towers and missing public infrastructure are often treated as bizarre law-and-order failures of India. Yet they raise a more fundamental question. Why does the State often discover the disappearance of a public asset only after it has alrea

New Delhi’s Indo-Pacific strategy enters a new phase

India appears to be investing fresh dynamism in its Indo-Pacific strategy. At the time when the US, under president Donald Trump, has adopted a conciliatory approach towards China and has changed the name of America’s Indo-Pacific Command to just Pacific Command, India has quietly moved towards con