Out of the 243 candidates in the fray in 28 Assembly seats going to polls on May 13 in Odisha, 65 candidates have criminal cases pending against them, stated a report by the Odisha Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

This report is based on the analysis of the self-sworn affidavits of 243 candidates contesting in these 28 Assembly seats in Odisha. Out of the total 243 candidates, 65 (27%) have declared criminal cases against themselves, and 48 (20%) candidates are facing serious charges.

According to the ADR, serious criminal cases are linked to those offences for which a maximum punishment is of 5 years or more and if an offence is non-bailable.Out of the 28 Assembly seats going to polls in Phase-I, 12 (43%) are red alert constituencies as in these constituencies three or more candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.