Patna, Mar 19 (IANS): Leader of opposition and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav on Friday alleged that 64 per cent of the ministers in the Nitish Kumar cabinet were tainted.

Yadav also handed over a list of the tainted ministers to Assembly speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha.

Yadav said that two days ago, when he had mentioned the tainted ministers in the Assembly, the speaker had sought evidence. "That is why I have submitted the list of ministers today."

He said that a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has revealed that 18 out of 31 ministers, which comes to 64 per cent of the ministers, have criminal cases registered against them. "Of these 18, 14 have serious criminal cases against them. I am going to submit to the Speaker the personal data related to these cases," he further said.

In the House, Speaker Sinha said the ADR report is in the public domain and refused to make it part of the House proceedings. "I thought you had some different information. This list even includes people who are accused of violating the model code of conduct."

Opposition party members raised slogans in the legislature premises before the commencement of assembly proceedings.

While the Left party members raised slogans about rising prices, RJD MLAs demanded that Bihar's iconic CM, Jan Nayak Karpuri Thakur, be bestowed with the Bharat Ratna honour.