Bihar polls: With assets worth Rs 89.77 crore, daughter of a truck driver emerges as richest nominee

The controversial JD(U) leader has declared her own assets as Rs 53.19 crore, but her family assets are reportedly around Rs 89 crore

Her father was a truck driver, her husband a muscleman-turned-politician, while her son is serving a life term in a murder case.

Meet Manorama Devi, the JD(U) candidate from Atri in Gaya who is contesting an Assembly election for the first time as Nitish’s nominee. Her other claim to fame is astronomical assets worth Rs 89.77 crore declared while submitting her nomination papers.

The controversial JD(U) leader has, however, declared her own assets as Rs 53.19 crore, but her family assets are reportedly around Rs 89 crore, which includes assets owned by her late husband Bindi Yadav, who died of Covid-19 in July this year.

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Manorama’s father Hazara Singh was a truck driver, who married Kabootri Devi, the daughter of a dhaba (roadside eatery) owner near Gaya. Hazara settled down in Bihar after the wedding and Manorama was born in 1970.

Around three decades ago, she married Yadav, who initially flirted with the RJD before shifting his allegiance to the JD(U). Their son Rocky was awarded a life term for killing a Class XII boy Aditya Sachdeva in a road rage in Gaya in 2016. Manorama continues to be a JD(U) MLC.

The poorest candidate in the poll fray is Naresh Das of the SUCI-C (Socialist Unity Centre of India-Communist), who is contesting from Sultanganj, near Bhagalpur. Das has declared his meagre asset worth Rs 3,500.

Next on the list of poor nominees is Anil Kumar of the Jan Adhikar Party (JAP), the outfit headed by former RJD MP Pappu Yadav. Kumar, who is contesting from Kutumba in the Naxal-infested Aurangabad, has declared assets worth Rs 7,000.

Incidentally, Kutumba is the same constituency from where the second richest candidate in Bihar, Rajesh Kumar (Congress), is in the fray with assets worth Rs 33.65 crore, next only to JD(U)’s Manorama Devi.