BHUBANESWAR: With just 3 days to the first phase voting, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch have jointly released a report on the Criminal, Financial & Educational background of the Candidates standing in the 2nd phase of the Odisha Assembly Polls.
The National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 1590 out of 1644 candidates, who are contesting in the Lok Sabha Phase II. Out of all 1590 candidates analysed, 209 are from national parties, 107 are from state parties, 386 are from registered unrecognized parties and 888 candidates are contesting independently.
As per the report, out of 1590 candidates analyzed, 251 (or 16%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. As many as 167 candidates or 11% are having serious criminal cases against themselves. The Report further reveal that 3 candidates have declared convicted cases against themselves and 6 candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section -302) against themselves. Out of the 251 tainted candidates, 23 are of INC, 16 each from BJP and BSP and 11 are of DMK.
In the phase-I, as many as 213(17%) candidates out of the 1266 candidates analysed had criminal cases.