Bhubaneswar, September 7, 2018: At least 27 per cent of sitting MLAs in Odisha have declared criminal cases against themselves against the national average of 21 per cent.
The Odisha Election Watch (OEW) and Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR)’s analysis of affidavits of all 168 sitting MPs/MLAs, from Odisha including 21 MPs and 147 MLAs has revealed that out of 168 MPs/MLAs, 54 (32 per cent) have declared criminal cases against themselves.
Among these 54 MPs/MLAs, 41 (24 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
At least 184 (34 per cent) out of 543 Lok Sabha MPs and 1353 (33 per cent) out of 4,078 MLAs (all State assemblies/UTs) analysed have declared criminal cases against themselves.
While 117 (22 per cent) out of 543 Lok Sabha MPs and 860 (21 per cent) out of 4,078 MLAs of all State assemblies /UTs analysed have declared serious criminal cases against themselves, 64 (six percent) have declared charges related to kidnapping against themselves.
At least 48 MPs and MLAs have declared cases related to crime against women against themselves.
“While 27% of sitting Odisha MLAs have declared criminal cases against themselves, the same figure at the national level stands at 21 per cent,” said OEW coordinator Ranjan Kumar Mohanty in a press conference here.
He urged all the political parties to not field persons with serious criminal background and involved in heinous crime in election.
“Political Parties should not nominate such persons to contest elections on their behalf in the forthcoming general election and election to Odisha State Legislative Assembly and restraint from distributing tickets to the persons with criminal background,” said Mohanty.
