2019 Odisha Polls Saw 2% Rise In Women MLA Candidates

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 1,121 of the 1,137 candidates, contesting the Odisha 2019 Assembly elections from Phase 1 to 4.

The analysis of 16 candidates could not be made due to unclear affidavit available on the website of the Election Commission of India (ECI) at the time of making this report, it said.

Mentioned below are the highlights:

Gender details of candidates: Of the 1121 candidates analyzed, only 112 (10%) women are contesting in the Odisha 2019 Assembly Election. In 2014, 117 (8%) women candidates contested the elections.

Education details of candidates: 472 (42%) candidates have declared their educational qualification to be between 5th pass and 12th pass, while 598 (53%) candidate have declared having an educational qualification of graduate and above. 8 candidates have declared themselves to be just literate.

Age details of candidates: 710 (63%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 and 50 years while 409 (36%) candidates have declared their age to be between 51 and 80 years. While 1 candidate has declared he is more than 80 years old and 1 candidate has not disclosed his age in the affidavit.

Candidates with Criminal Cases

332 (30%) candidates with criminal cases

257 (23%) candidates with serious criminal cases, including cases related to rape, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and crime against women.

—7 candidates were convicted
—9 candidates were booked for murder (Indian Penal Code Section-302).
—63 candidates had attempt to murder cases (IPC Section-307) against them.
—49 candidates were accused of crime against women and 2 among them booked for rape (IPC Section-376).
—17 candidates have declared cases related to kidnapping.

In 2014 elections, 333 (23%) of 1420 candidates had declared about pending criminal cases.

In 2009 elections, 292 (23%) of 1261 candidates had declared about pending criminal cases.

Party-wise Candidates with Criminal Cases

The ruling BJD has fielded highest number of candidates (59 per cent) with pending criminal cases followed by BJP at 40 per cent. Similarly, 12 (11%) of 106 candidates fielded by BSP and 67 (23%) of 298 Independent candidates have declared criminal cases in their affidavits.

Party-wise Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases

In serious offences, BJP has topped the list with 46 per cent such candidates. Congress is next on the list with 35 per cent candidates followed by BJD at 27 per cent.

Similarly, 11 (10%) of 106 candidates fielded by BSP and 55 (19%) of 298 Independent candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Red Alert Constituencies
59 constituencies in the Assembly elections have 3 or more candidates with declared criminal cases. In 2014 Assembly elections, 56 constituencies had 3 or more candidates with declared criminal cases.

Assets

In terms of the properties and assets of the candidates, of the 1121 candidates in 2019 Assembly elections, 304 (27%) are crorepatis.

In 2014 elections, 244 (17%) of 1420 candidates were crorepatis while out 94 (7%) of 1261 candidates in 2009 Assembly elections were crorepatis.

Party-wise Crorepati Candidates
97 (66%) out of 146 candidates fielded by BJD, 75 (52%) out of 145 candidates from BJP, 73 (53%) out of 139 candidates from Congress, 5 (5%) out of 106 candidates from BSP, 4 (27%) out of 15 candidates fielded by AAP, and 41 (14%) out of 298 Independent candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.

Average assets
The average of assets per candidate contesting in the 2019 Assembly elections is Rs 1.69 crore. The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Assembly elections 2014 was Rs 91.14 lakh while that in Assembly elections 2009 was Rs 50.88 lakh.

Party-wise average assets
Among the major parties, the average assets per candidate for 146 BJD candidates is Rs 4.59 crore, 145 BJP candidates have Rs 2.78 crore, 139 Congress candidates have Rs 3.85 crore, 106 BSP candidates have Rs 27.75 lakh and 298 Independent candidates have Rs 68.75 lakh.

The top three richest candidates contesting the 2019 Assembly elections are Bobby Mohanty (Badamba constituency)—Rs 106 crore, Naveen Patnaik (Hinjili and Bijepur constituencies)—Rs 63 crore and Niranjan Patnaik (Ghasipura and Bhandaripokhari constituencies)—Rs 60 crore.

The top three candidates with highest liabilities are Naba Kishore Das (BJD), Sanjib Mallick (BJD) and Irani Ray (BJP).

Zero-asset candidates: Six candidates declared zero assets in their self sworn affidavits. Among them are four Independents.