Bhubaneswar, May 27: In the 2024 twin elections, various political parties have fielded more candidates with self-declared criminal records, violating the directives of the Supreme Court. This was revealed by Odisha Election Watch and the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) in their joint analysis released on Monday.

“Despite the Supreme Court's directives for candidate selection in the Odisha Assembly Elections 2024, all political parties have nominated candidates with criminal records,” the report stated. It noted that approximately 27% of candidates have criminal cases against them, with major parties nominating between 17% and 68% of such candidates.

The Supreme Court, in its February 13, 2020, directive, specifically instructed political parties to provide reasons for selecting candidates with criminal backgrounds over those without.

The analysis by Odisha Election Watch and ADR revealed that 100 out of 147 BJP candidates (68%), 60 out of 145 INC candidates (41%), 46 out of 147 BJD candidates (31%), and seven out of 41 AAP candidates (17%) have declared criminal cases in their affidavits.

The report did not analyze two candidates due to poorly scanned or missing affidavits on the ECI website. These candidates are Brahmachari Nayak of Supreme Zero Party of Bharat for the Khurda Assembly constituency and a candidate contesting the Sambalpur Rengali (SC) seat.

According to the report, out of 1,283 candidates analyzed in the Odisha Assembly elections 2024, 348 (27%) have declared criminal cases. In comparison, in the 2019 Odisha Assembly Elections, 332 out of 1,121 candidates (30%) had declared criminal cases.

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