Bhubaneswar: Of the 147 newly elected legislators to the Odisha legislative Assembly, 52 (35%) are facing criminal charges which is 2 percent high as compared to 2009 Assembly election. Of the MLAs facing criminal cases 41 have declared serious Indian Penal Code (IPC) counts including murder, Attempt to murder, kidnapping and crime against women pending against them. Statistics sourced from a post result declaration combined study carried out by Odisha Election Watch (OEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) says the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) which has witnessed a landslide victory in last election with 117 MLAs, has topped the rank with 32 (27%) members facing criminal cases. Of the 32 MLAs 23 are facing serious criminal offences. BJD trailed by major oppositions like Congress and BJP with 9 out of 16 and 8 out of 10 winners embroiled in criminal charges respectively. The report revealed eight elected legislators have been implicated with attempt to murder and 6 have declared that they are facing cases related to crime against women. While three elected MLAs have declared cases of robbery and dacoity in their affidavits four have declared cases of kidnapping. Apart from it 218 candidates with serious criminal backgrounds have lost the ground in last election. Ranjan Mohanty, coordinator of OEW said among the elected representatives to the state Assembly Biramitrapur legislator and founder of Samata Kranti Dal George Tirkey has been facing a total number of 38 serious IPC counts in 22 cases. Tirkey followed by Talcher MLA Braja Kishor Pradhan of BJD with 19 serious charges in 27 cases pending against him. According to the analysis report Bargarh legislator Subal Sahu of Congress, Champua legislator Sanatan Mahakud fought as an independent candidate, Nimapada MLA Samir Ranjan Das of BJD topped the chart of elected legislators with cases related to crime against women. - See more at: http://www.orissadiary.com/CurrentNews.asp?id=50069#sthash.4DuWP61x.dpuf