About 46 per cent candidates elected to the State Assembly have criminal cases against them, a survey by the Odisha Election Watch (OEW) and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has revealed.
A total of new 67 MLAs out of 146 have declared criminal cases in their affidavits.
Out of 147 MLAs’ cases analysed during the 2014 Assembly polls, the percentage was lower than the 2019 elections. In previous polls, 52 (35%) of MLAs had declared criminal cases against them.
Similarly, 49 (34%) MLAs in the 2019 polls have serious criminal cases including murder, attempt to murder and kidnapping. In the 2014 elections, 41 (28%) had declared serious criminal cases against them out of 147 MLAs, the ADR report has stated.
Out of the MLAs with serious criminal cases, two have declared cases relating to murder and 11 MLAs have declared cases relating to attempt to murder.
The report revealed that the BJD has maximum MLAs with criminal antecedents. However, the Congress topped the list in terms of percentage of MLAs with criminal cases. Among the MLAs (party-wise), 46 (41%) out of 112 MLAs from the BJD, 14 (61%) out of 23 ML
As from the BJP and six (67%) out of nine from the Congress have declared criminal cases against them.
Besides, 33(30 per cent) out of 112 MLAs from the BJD, 10 (44 per cent) out of 23 MLAs from BJP and five (56 per cent) out of nine MLAs from Congress have serious criminal cases against them, the report said.