Odisha Assembly Elections 2024: 58% Winning Candidates Face Criminal Cases; BJP Leads Among Parties

Bhubaneswar: Around 58% of the candidates, who have won the Assembly elections in Odisha, face criminal cases against them.

This was revealed in the report of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the Odisha Election Watch. The two organisations have prepared the report after analysing the self-sworn affidavits of all 147 winning candidates in the Assembly Elections 2024 in the state.

The analysis of the criminal background the winning candidates mentioned that as many as 85 of them have declared criminal cases against themselves, accounting for 58% of the total candidates.

Out of 146 MLAs analysed during the Assembly elections in 2019, 67 (46%) MLAs had declared criminal cases against themselves, 35% in 2014 and 33% in 2009.

Similarly, 67 (46%) winning candidates have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. Out of 146 MLAs analysed during Odisha Assembly elections in 2019, 49 (34%) MLAs had declared serious criminal cases against themselves, 28% in 2014 and 21% in 2009.

In the party wise analysis, the report stated that the BJP leads with 55 (71%) of its 78 winning candidates declaring criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits. It was followed by 15 (29%) out of 51 candidates from BJD, 11 (79%) of 14 from Congress, 1 (100%) of CPI(M) and 3 (100%) Independent winning candidates.

The BJP also has the highest number of elected MLAs with serious criminal cases. It has 46 (59%) out of 78 winning candidates who have declared having serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

It is followed by 12 (24%) of 51 winning candidates from BJD, 5 (36%) of 14 from Congress, 1 (100%) candidate of CPI(M) and 3 (100%) Independent candidates.