Janata Dal (United)’s newly elected MLA, Vibha Devi on Tuesday, struggled to read her oath during the first session of the Bihar Assembly following the state elections, and was seen seeking help from a fellow MLA to repeat it.
Vibha Devi, wife of former MLA and strongman Raj Ballabh Yadav, sought help from the MLA sitting next to her, Manorama Devi, and with her guidance, Vibha Devi was able to finish taking the oath, PTI reported.
She won the Nawada seat by defeating RJD’s Kaushal Yadav with a margin of 27,594 votes.
A look at Vibha Devi’s assets
Vibha Devi Yadav declared her assets in the election affidavit filed for the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections. According to official disclosures sourced from the Election Commission of India, her total assets stand at approximately ₹31 crore.
She also reported liabilities of ₹5.2 crore (primarily loans) and an annual income of ₹1.1 crore (from agriculture and other sources).
Her movable assets are valued at ₹7.51 crore, which includes ₹1.5 lakh cash, ₹2.5 crore in bank fixed deposits and savings, ₹4.5 crore in shares, mutual funds and bonds, gold jewellery of approximately 800 grams, along with silver worth nearly ₹50 lakh.
Immovable assets are worth ₹23.53 crore, mainly comprising extensive agricultural land (several dozen acres) in Nawada and Arwal districts, two residential properties worth ₹2 crore, and three commercial buildings/shops worth ₹1.5 crore. She has liabilities of ₹5.2 crore (mostly bank loans) and declared an annual income of ₹1.1 crore for the year 2024-25.
Vibha Devi’s political career
Vibha Devi Yadav is a self-described literate housewife and agriculturist from Nawada who entered politics as a proxy for her jailed husband amid the family’s strong Yadav caste influence in the region.
Her career began in 2019 when she contested the Lok Sabha elections from Nawada on an RJD ticket but lost to LJP’s Chandan Singh.
Undeterred, she won the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections from the Nawada constituency as an RJD candidate, defeating the BJP’s Binod Yadav by over 26,000 votes.
This victory marked her as the first woman MLA from her family, leveraging her husband’s “bahubali” legacy to consolidate Yadav and backward caste votes in a constituency long dominated by the Yadav lineage.
In early 2025, following her husband’s acquittal and release from jail, Vibha Devi resigned from RJD—citing ideological differences and alignment with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s development model—and joined JD(U) in February 2025.
After resigning, she said, “I have given a resignation from the position of MLA…CM Nitish Kumar has done good work in Nawada and Bihar. He will continue to do the same…The public looks for development. The public will raise the question of whether there has been a development or not…”
How did she earn grassroots loyalty?
Positioning herself as a relatable “housewife-turned-leader,” she has organised and supported numerous women’s self-help groups (SHGs), free medical camps, and school-enrolment drives, especially in Yadav and backward-caste villages across the constituency.
Vibha Devi actively raised issues in the Bihar Assembly between 2021 and 2024, pressing for higher agricultural subsidies, better crop insurance coverage, and timely relief for farmers in the flood-prone Nawada region, directly benefiting thousands of farming households.
The NDA registered a historic landslide victory in the 2025 Bihar assembly polls, winning 202 of the 243 seats, while the Mahagathbandhan secured only 35 seats. The ruling alliance secured a three-fourths majority in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, marking the second time the NDA crossed the 200-seat mark in state polls.
In the NDA, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the largest party with 89 seats, followed by Janata Dal (United) with 85, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) (LJPRV) won 19, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) (HAMS) won five, and Rashtriya Lok Morcha won four seats.
(With inputs from agencies)
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