Bhubaneswar: As many as 79 candidates contesting for six Lok Sabha and 41 Assembly seats in phase-IV general election in Odisha have declared criminal cases against them in the affidavit.
According to an analysis done by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Odisha Chapter of the Election Watch said while seven candidates contesting for the Lok Sabha seats have criminal cases against them as many as 72 candidates in the fray in Assembly seats have criminal cases.
Altogether 346 candidates are in the fray for 42 Assembly seats 52 candidates for six Lok Sabha seats.
Party wise the BJP had the highest number of 28 candidates with criminal cases in the fourth phase of election followed by BJD (15) and Congress (12).
Election watch state coordinator Ranjan Mohanty said 52 out of 72 candidates with having declared serious criminal cases against.
Three candidates have declared cases against them related to murder, 11 candidates attempt to murder and eight candidates have declared cases related to crime against women.
BJP also fielded the highest number of 16 candidates with serious criminal cases against them for the state Assembly, followed by Congress and BJD ten each and BSP one.
Out of the seven candidates contesting for the Lok Sabha who have declared criminal cases against them, six have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
BJP has the highest number of four candidates who have declared serious criminal cases against them followed by Bahujan Mukti party and the Free Thought party of India one each.
None of the candidates of the BJD contesting for the Lok Sabha has any criminal case against them.
(UNI)