Out of the 147 newly elected MLAs in Odisha, 52 (35%) have criminal cases pending against them.

This is 4% higher as compared to the number of MLAs in the last House who were implicated in criminal cases.

This was revealed by the Odisha Election Watch (OEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) who shared the findings of their poll analysis report with the media at a press briefing here today.

Of the 52 candidates, 41 have serious criminal charges which include attempt to murder, rape, kidnapping, crimes against women etc.

The analysis report says, out of 117 winners from the BJD, 32 (27%) have criminal cases while 9 (56%) out of 16 winners from the Congress and 8 (80%) out of 10 winners from the BJP have criminal cases pending against them.

This apart, 23 (20%) out of 117 winners from BJD, 8 (50%) out of 16 from the Congress and 7 (70%) out of 10 from BJP face serious criminal charges.

While eight winning candidates are implicated in attempt to murder cases, three in robbery and dacoity cases and four have cases relating to kidnapping against them.

Besides, six MLAs have cases of crimes against women.

The report said out of a total of 1420 candidates who contested the assembly polls, 218 booked in serious criminal cases were defeated.