10 of 19 Muslim Lawmakers in New Bihar Assembly are Crorepatis and Well-Educated

Among the 19, there is one doctorate and three post-graduates while six have studied up to Class XII (HSC)

Mumtaz Alam | Clarion India

NEW DELHI — The newly-elected 243-member Bihar legislative assembly will have 19 Muslim MLAs, five less from the outgoing House in India’s second most populous state.

Among the 19, there is one doctorate and three post-graduates. As for wealth, every second Muslim MLA is a crorepati.

The general elections for the assembly were held in three phases in the last one month and results were declared on Tuesday. The main Opposition party in the state, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), has emerged as the single largest party with 75 seats. The ruling BJP has won 74 seats followed by its ally JDU (43).

While the ruling alliance will have no Muslim lawmaker in the new House, the RJD will have 8 MLAs from the minority community, AIMIM 5 and the Congress 4, besides 1 each from Bahujan Samaj Party and CPI-ML(L). 

As per the report of ADR India, which analysed the poll affidavits of all candidates, among the newly-elected Muslim legislators, there is one doctorate, Congress MLA Shakeel Ahmed Khan. There are three post-graduates, six graduates, six HSC (Class XII) Pass and three are only SSC (Class X) Pass.

The election affidavits require candidates to disclose information about their assets, both moveable and immovable.

Wealth-wise, there are 10 crorepatis among the 19 Muslim MLAs. The richest among them is RJD MLA Yusuf Salahuddin (value of his moveable and immovable assets is Rs 13.65 crore) and the poorest among them is BSP MLA Md Zaman Khan (assets worth about Rs 30 lakhs). 

It is interesting to note here that the richest Muslim candidate, Salahuddin, has won his seat with lowest victory margin (1,767 votes) but the second poorest Muslim candidate, Mahboob Alam of CPI-ML(L), has triumphed with the highest margin (53,597 votes) among the 19 lawmakers from the minority community.