Bihar Cabinet Reshuffle: Nearly Half of Ministers Declare Criminal Cases Against Themselves

Nearly half of the ministers inducted after the Bihar cabinet reshuffle have declared criminal cases against themselves, while 90 percent of the ministers are crorepatis. A report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Bihar Election Watch claims this. The report analysed the self-declared affidavits of 31 out of 35 ministers, including Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary, after the May 7 reshuffle of the Bihar cabinet. These affidavits were submitted before the 2025 assembly and legislative council elections in Bihar. According to the report, 15 ministers or 48 percent of the ministers whose affidavits were analysed have admitted to having criminal cases registered against them. Nine of these ministers (29 percent) are facing serious criminal charges. According to the ADR, two ministers (Ashok Choudhary of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and Pramod Kumar of the BJP) did not need to submit affidavits as they were nominated members of the legislative council. Deepak Kumar of the RLM and Nishant Kumar of the JD-U are also not mentioned in the report as members of the current Bihar cabinet.