Bhubaneswar: As many as 67 out of the 146 elected MLAs in the state have criminal records. This works out to 46 per cent.
Of the 67, 49 MLAs or 39 per cent have serious criminal charges against them, including murder, attempt to murder and kidnapping.
A survey by Odisha Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said 41 of the 147 MLAs elected in 2014 — 28 per cent — had declared serious criminal charges against themselves.

Two of the MLAs elected this time have declared cases related to murder (Section 302 of the IPC) while 11 MLAs have declared cases related to attempt to murder (Section 307 of the IPC). Congress MLA from Sanakhemundi Ramesh Jena has declared the highest number of criminal cases — 51 — against him, including cases related to murder, attempt to murder, extortion, assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty and criminal intimidation. He won by a margin of 23,727 against BJD’s Nandini Devi.
Of the 112 BJD MLAs, 46 — 41 per cent — have declared criminal cases against them. Of the 23 BJP MLAs, six or 67 per cent have criminal cases against them.