By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 28, 2019: As many as 332 candidates nearly one third of the total candidates contesting in the ongoing Odisha Assembly elections have criminal cases against them, while 257 aspirants are facing cases of serious offences, a report by Odisha Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said on Sunday.

The BJP tops in the list of candidates with 86 (56 per cent) out of 145 candidates are facing criminal cases against 58 (40 per cent) out of 146 candidates of BJD, 64 (46 per cent) out of 139 candidates from Congress, 12 (11 per cent) of 106 candidates fielded by BSP and 67 (23 per cent) out of 298 Independent candidates, the report said.

While seven candidates have declared convicted cases against themselves, nine aspirants have declared cases related to murder, 63 attempt to murder, 17 kidnapping and 63 crimes against women, it said.

Similarly, 17 candidates have declared cases related to kidnapping against them, while two have declared cases related to rape.

The report was prepared after analysis of the self-sworn affidavits of 1,121 out of 1,137 candidates contesting the Assembly elections being held in four phases in the state.

Sixteen candidates have not been analysed due to unclear affidavit available on the ECI website at the time of making this report, it said.

The report said that the number of candidates who declared criminal cases against them has risen when compared to past elections.

Out of 1261 candidates analysed during Odisha Assembly elections in 2009, 292 (23 per cent) had declared criminal cases against them, the report said.

There are 59 assembly constituencies where three or more number of candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves.

Six Lok Sabha and 42 Assembly seats of Odisha will go to polls on Monday. The results will be announced on May 23.