Election watchdogs Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Bihar Election Watch (BEW) scrutinised the poll affidavits of all 243 winners in the just concluded Assembly elections and found out that though 42 per cent of the newly-elected MLAs are facing serious criminal cases, it has registered a dip vis as vis the 2020 polls, when 51 percent legislators were accused of such offences.

"Altogether 102 newly-elected MLAs or 42 per cent of the total MLAs, have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in the 2025 Assembly elections. We count cases pertaining to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, atrocities against women, possession if illegal weapons, and violence as serious criminal offences and exclude other offences like agitation, obstructing government servants from discharging their duty from this category," ADR Bihar state coordinator Rajiv Kumar told ETV Bharat.

Rajiv added that there was nothing much to be happy about despite the graph of the criminalisation of politics going down because all the political parties were still handing over tickets to such people, depriving the electors of the opportunity to vote for a better candidate.

"We shall be satisfied only when the political parties stop giving tickets to candidates with criminal antecedents. It will rid politics of criminalisation, which is one of our aims," the ADR Bihar coordinator added.

According to the data, six of the MLAs have declared cases related to murder, 19 face charges pertaining to attempt to murder, and nine are accused in cases of atrocities against women.

Among the larger parties, 14 out of 25 or 56 per cent of RJD's newly-elected MLAs have criminal cases against them, while 10 out of 19 or 53 per cent of the winners of Union Home Minister Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) or LJP(R) have criminal offences registered against them.

Three out of six or 50 per cent of Congress winners and 43 out of 89 or 48 per cent of the newly elected MLAs of the BJP are facing criminal charges. Only 23 out of 85 or 27 per cent winners of the Janata Dal (United) are accused in criminal cases.

Similarly, a staggering 90 per cent of the victorious candidates are 'crorepatis', and average movable and immovable assets of the elected public representatives to the Assembly are around 9.02 crore.

"The Election Commission of India should pay attention to the problem of 'crorepati' candidates in the polls. It negates the chances of the common people to contest elections and get elected. There should be a level playing field for them," Rajiv said.

In terms of education, the Assembly is improving. Around 60 per cent of winners are either a graduate or have studied higher. Still, around 35 per cent of the winners have studied between classes 5 and 12. Altogether, seven candidates have declared themselves as just 'literates'.