Bhubaneswar: In the 2024 twin elections, different political parties have fielded more candidates with self-declared criminal records violating the directives of the Supreme Court, revealed Odisha Election Watch and Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) in their joint analysis of various aspects of the candidates on Monday.
“Despite the directions of the Supreme Court in the selection of candidates in the Odisha Assembly Elections 2024, all political parties have nominated candidates with criminal records,” the report said, adding, “The political parties have followed their old practice of giving tickets to around 27% candidates with criminal cases.” It added, “All major parties contesting in Odisha elections have given tickets from 17% to 68% candidates who have declared criminal cases against themselves.”
The Supreme Court in its directions dated February 13, 2020, had specifically instructed political parties to give reasons for such selection and why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates.
Notwithstanding the SC order, Odisha Election Watch and ADR analysed that 100 (68%) out of 147 candidates from the BJP, 60 (41%) out of 145 candidates analysed from the Indian National Congress (INC), 46 (31%) out of 147 candidates nominated by the BJD, and seven (17%) out of 41 candidates fielded by the AAP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
The report did not analyse two candidates as their affidavits were either badly scanned or complete affidavits were not uploaded on the ECI website. These candidates are Brahmachari Nayak of Supreme Zero Party of Bharat for Khurda Assembly constituency and a candidate contesting the Sambalpur Rengali (SC) seat.
According to the Odisha Election Watch and ADR report, out of the 1,283 candidates analysed in the Odisha Assembly elections 2024, 348 (27%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. In the 2019 Odisha Assembly Elections, out of 1,121 candidates analysed, 332 (30%) had declared criminal cases against themselves.
Even the number of candidates with serious criminal cases has increased in the 2024 elections. As many as 292 (23%) have declared serious criminal cases. In the 2019 Odisha Assembly elections, 257 (23%) candidates had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
