Bhubaneswar, May 6 (UNI) As many as 113 of the total 243 candidates, about 47 percent, who are in the fray in 28 Assembly seats in Odisha, going to polls on May 13 next, have criminal records against themselves, according to Odisha Election watch report prepared by Association for Democratic Reforms(ADR).
The report said while of 65 candidates, about 27 percent have declared criminal cases against them,48 candidates constituting 20 percent of the total contesting candidate have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
Among the major parties, 18 of the total 28 BJP candidates(64 percent),17 INC candidates(61 percent), 9 ( 32 percent) BJD candidates and 3(27 percent) out of 11 AAP candidates have declared criminal cases against them in the affidavit.
Similarly, party wise candidates with serious criminal cases,15 BJP candidates, 10 INC candidates, 4 BJD candidates and 3 AAP candidates(out of 11) have declared serious criminal cases against them in the affidavit.
The ADR report said out of 28 Assembly seats going to polls in the first phase ,12 Assembly constituencies are declared as Red Alert constituencies where more than three candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.
It said the direction of the Supreme court has had no effect on the political parties in selection of candidates in Odisha Assembly elections as they have followed the old practice of giving tickets to candidates with criminal cases.
According to the report, all major political parties contesting the Odisha election phase one have given tickets to candidates having criminal records from 27 percent to 64 percent.
It said as far as crorepatis are concerned, out of 243 candidates contesting the 28 Assembly seats in the first phase, 70 candidates (20 percent) are crorepatis.
The report further said the role of money power in the election is evident that all major political parties have given tickets to wealthy persons.
Among the major parties 25 BJD candidates (out of 28) are crorepatis followed by 14 each from BJP and INC and 2 from AAP out of eleven candidates have declared assets worth more than 1 crore.
The average assets per candidate contesting in Odisha Assembly election phase I is Rs.1.21crore.
It said among the major parties, the average asset per BJD candidate is Rs.4.49 crore while in case of INC it is Rs.1.87 crore and for the BJP it is Rs.1.74 crore.The assets of average 11 AAP candidates is 56.68 lakh.
The top three candidates having high assets are Biplab Patro(BJD) contesting from Digpahandi is over Rs.33 crores followed by Rs.15.94 crore of another BJD candidate Bikram Kumar Panda contesting from Gopalpur Assembly seat.
BJP candidate Sudhir Ranjan Patjoshi contesting from Dharamgarh Assembly seat has total declared assets of Rs.12.01 crore.
Two candidates have declared zero assets.They are Ramesh Kumar Mahanada , an independent candidate contesting Bhawanipatna (SC) Assembly seat and BSP candidate Purna Chandra Majhi contesting from Rayagada (ST) Assembly seat.
Three candidates have declared low assets.They are Ramesh Jani of Republic Party of India from Laxmipur assembly seat who has declared his total assets value is Rs.1000.00, Siba Prasad Sagadia (independent) who has declared total assets at Rs.1921 .00 and another Independent candidate Bhuban Khora with total assets of Rs.6000.00.
Coming to the educational background details of the candidates contesting the 28 Assembly seats,132 of 243 candidates have declared their education qualification between 5th standard to 12th standard while 100 candidates have declared their educational qualification graduate and above ,seven candidates have declared as Diploma holders while four candidates are illiterates.
As far as the age of the candidates is concerned,73 candidates declared their age between 25 years to 40 years,while 144 candidates have declared their age between 41 years to 60 years and 26 candidates who have declared their age between 61 years to 80years.
Among the 243 candidates, only 32 candidates are female, the ADR report said.
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