Odisha Assembly polls: 332 candidates have criminal cases

A total of 332 candidates contesting in the Odisha Assembly polls have criminal cases, with 257 serious and seven convicted, according to the National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

Nine candidates have declared cases related to murder, 63 attempt to murder, 17 kidnapping, 63 crime against women, 17 cases related to kidnapping and two have declared cases related to rape.

The ADR has analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 1,121 out of 1,137 candidates contesting in the four-phased Odisha Assembly elections across 147 constituencies.

"There are 16 candidates who have not been analysed due to unavailability of properly scanned and complete affidavits at the time of making this report," the ADR said in a statement on Sunday.

"A total of 257 out of 1,121 candidates analysed have declared serious criminal cases and seven candidates have declared convicted cases."

In terms of parties, 40 out of 146 candidates from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), 67 out of 145 candidates from the BJP, 48 out of 139 candidates from Congres, 11 out of 55 candidates from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), 55 out of 298 candidates Independent candidates have declared criminal cases.

The report also said that 59 constituencies have three or more candidates with declared criminal cases.

--IANS

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