Of the 747 candidates in fray for the second phase Assembly polls in Odisha , there as many as 186 candidates who have declared criminal cases against them, says an analysis report of the Odisha Election Watch ( OEW).
The report by the Odisha Election Watch (OEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) was shared with the media here today.
The analysis is based on the self-sworn affidavits of 744 candidates contesting in 77 constituencies in the second phase of Odisha State Assembly Elections 2014. Three affidavits have not been analysed because of insufficient information.
Out of the 186 candidates who have declared criminal cases, 144 have declared serious criminal cases. These include murder, rape, kidnapping and crimes against women.
Rabindranath Jarika of Aama Odisha Party from Sukinda constituency assembly ranks number one with highest number of 38 criminal cases slapped against him. Judhistir Samantaray of the Congress (INC) and Braja Kishore Pradhan from the Pipili and Talcher constituencies respectively share the second position with 27 criminal cases each pending against them while Sanatan Mahakud , idnependent candidate from Champua constituency comes third with 10 cases.
21 candidates have declared murder and attempt to murder related cases in their affidavits.
20 candidates have declared cases of crimes against women. 14 candidates have declared cases related to assault or criminal force against woman with intent to outrage her modesty (IPC Section-354).
3 candidates have declared cases related to the husband or relative of the husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty (IPC Section-498A).
Satyabrata Panda of BJP from Ghasipura constituency has declared charges of rape – along with charges related to causing miscarriage without woman’s consent (IPC Section-313) – and kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman for marriage (IPC Section-366).
The party wise break-up of candidates with criminal cases shows 39 out of 77 candidates fielded by the Congress (INC) have declared criminal cases against them, while 25 out of 77 candidates from BJD, 34 out of 77 candidates from BJP and 9 out of 63 candidates from AAP have declared criminal cases in their affidavits.
In the red alert constituencies category, there are 32 constituencies that have at least 3 candidates with declared criminal cases.
Balasore constituency has the maximum number of 7 candidates with criminal cases.
Notably, out of 744 candidates analyzed in the report, only 63 (8%) are women.
