Bhubaneswar: As many as 144 out of 747 candidates contesting in the second phase of election in 77 Assembly constituencies in Odisha scheduled to be held on April 17 next have declared serious criminal cases including murder, rape, crime against women and kidnapping against them.
An analysis conducted jointly by Odisha Election Watch (OEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) of self sworn affidavits of 744 out of the total 747 candidates found that 186 candidates have declared criminal cases against them.
The affidavits of three candidates — two Independents and a candidate of Samatakranti Dal could not be analysed due to unclear or incomplete affidavits.
Out of the 186 who have declared criminals cases against them 144 have declared serious criminal cases.
Party wise the Congress has fielded the highest number of 39 candidates with criminal cases followed by BJP 34 and ruling BJD 25.
The Aam Aadmi Party has put up the lowest number of nine candidates with criminal cases in the fray.
Election watch Coordinator Ranjan Mohanty said out of the 77 candidates fielded by the Congress 32 have declared serious criminal cases against them followed by BJP (24), BJD (17) and AAP (nine).
Mohanty said 20 candidates have declared cases of crime against women, 14 candidates have declared cases relating to assault or criminal force to woman with intention to outrage the modesty, three candidates have cases related to husband or relative of a husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty. (UNI)