Press release: Odisha Assembly Elections 2024: Consolidated Analysis of Criminal Background, Financial, Education, Gender and other details of Candidates - Phase 1 to 4

51 views

Skip to first unread message

ADR India

unread,

May 27, 2024, 3:16:57 AMMay 27

to national-el...@googlegroups.com, national...@googlegroups.com

Press Release

Date: May 27, 2024

Dear Friends,

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Odisha Election Watch have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 1283 out of 1285 candidates, who are contesting in the Odisha 2024 Assembly Elections Phase I to IV. Out of 1285 contesting candidates, 428 are from National parties, 207 are from State parties, 223 are from registered unrecognized parties and 425 candidates are contesting Independently.

This report also includes Analysis of Assets Comparison of Re-Contesting MLAs in the Odisha Assembly Election 2024

The full reports in English and Hindi can be accessed here: https://adrindia.org/content/analysis-criminal-background-financial-education-gender-and-other-details-candidates-and-1

Summary and Highlights

Party	Total Contesting Candidates	Total Number of Analysed Candidates	Candidates with declared Criminal Cases	% of candidates with declared criminal cases	Candidates with declared serious criminal cases	% of candidates with declared serious criminal cases	No. of Crorepatis	Percentage of Crorepati Candidates
National Parties	428	428	173	40%	139	32%	200	47%
State Parties	207	207	58	28%	44	21%	136	66%
Registered Unrecognized Party	225	223	25	11%	21	9%	8	4%
Independent	425	425	92	22%	88	21%	68	16%
Total	1285	1283	348	27%	292	23%	412	32%

Table: Party Category Wise Details

Phase Wise Summary of Candidates

Phase	No. of contesting candidates	No. of Candidates analysed	No. of Constituencies	No. of Candidates with Criminal Cases	% of Candidates with Criminal Cases	No. of Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases	% of Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases	No. of Crorepati Candidates	% of Crorepati Candidates	Average Assets (Rs. In crores)	Date of Poll
1	243	243	28	65	27%	48	20%	70	29%	1.21	13^th May, 2024
2	265	265	35	87	33%	70	26%	95	36%	3.98	20^th May, 2024
3	383	381	42	100	26%	86	23%	126	33%	3.47	25^th May, 2024
4	394	394	42	96	24%	88	22%	121	31%	2.62	01^th June, 2024
Total	1285	1283	147	348	27%	292	23%	412	32%	2.89	-

Table: Phase wise summary of candidates

Criminal Background

Candidates with Criminal Cases: Out of the 1283 candidates analysed in Odisha Assembly elections 2024, 348(27%) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. In 2019 Odisha Assembly Elections, out of 1121 candidates analysed, 332(30%) had declared criminal cases against themselves.
Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: 292(23%) have declared serious criminal cases. In 2019 Odisha Assembly Elections, 257 (23%) candidates had declared serious criminal cases against themselves.

Figure: Comparative analysis of Candidates with declared Criminal Cases: 2019 vs 2024

Party wise Candidates with Criminal Cases: Among the major parties,100(68%) out of 147 candidates analysed from BJP, 60(41%) out of 145 candidates analysed from INC, 46 (31%) out of 147 candidates analysed from BJD and 7 (17%) out of 41 candidates analysed from AAP have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Party wise Candidates with Serious Criminal Cases: Among the major parties,85(58%) out of 147 candidates analysed from BJP, 44(30%) out of 145 candidates analysed from INC, 33 (22%) out of 147 candidates analysed from BJD and 5 (12%) out of 41 candidates analysed from AAP have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Candidates with Criminal Cases

Party	Odisha Assembly 2019			Odisha Assembly 2024
Party	Number of Candidates Analysed	Number of candidates with Declared Criminal Cases	Percentage of candidates with Declared Criminal Cases	Number of Candidates Analysed	Number of candidates with Declared Criminal Cases	Percentage of candidates with Declared Criminal Cases
BJP	145	86	59%	147	100	68%
INC	139	64	46%	145	60	41%
BJD	146	58	40%	147	46	31%
AAP	15	4	27%	41	7	17%
Independent	298	67	23%	425	92	22%

Table: Party Wise Candidates with Declared Criminal Cases: 2019 vs 2024

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Candidates with Declared Criminal Cases: 2019 vs 2024

Candidates with declared cases related to crime against women: 66 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. Out of 66 candidates 4 candidates have declared charges related to rape (IPC Section-376).

Candidates with declared cases related to murder: 10 candidates have declared cases related to murder (IPC Section -302) against themselves.

Candidates with declared cases related to attempt to murder: 70 candidates have declared cases related to attempt to murder (IPC Section 307) against themselves.

Candidates with cases related to Hate Speech: 5 candidates have declared cases related to hate speech against themselves.

Red Alert Constituencies*: 59(40%) out of 147 constituencies are red alert constituencies. Red alert constituencies are those where 3 or more contesting candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. 59 (40%) constituencies in the Odisha assembly elections 2019 had 3 or more candidates with declared criminal cases.

The directions of the Supreme Court have had no effect on the political parties in selection of candidates in the Odisha Assembly Elections 2024 as they have again followed their old practice of giving tickets to around 27% candidates with criminal cases. 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 13th February, 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. As per these mandatory guidelines, the reasons for such selection has to be with reference to qualifications, achievements and merit of the candidate concerned. During the recent 5 State Assembly elections held in 2023, it was observed that political parties gave unfounded and baseless reasons like popularity of the person, does good social work, cases are politically motivated etc. These are not sound and cogent reasons for fielding candidates with tainted backgrounds. This data clearly shows that political parties have no interest in reforming the electoral system and our democracy will continue to suffer at the hands of lawbreakers who become lawmakers.

Financial Background

Figure: Share of Wealth among the Contesting Candidates

Share of wealth among candidates: The share of wealth amongst the candidates contesting in the Odisha assembly elections 2024 is as follows:

Value of assets (Rs.)	Number of candidates	Percentage of Candidates
5 crores and above	130	10%
2 crores to 5 crores	132	10%
50 lakhs to 2 crores	304	24%
10 lakhs to 50 lakhs	283	22%
less than 10 lakhs	434	34%

Table: Share of wealth amongst contesting candidates

Crorepati Candidates: Out of the 1283 candidates analysed, 412(32%) are crorepatis. In 2019 Odisha Assembly Elections, out of 1121 candidates, 304(27%) were crorepatis.

Figure: Comparative Analysis of Crorepati Candidates: 2019 Vs 2024

Party wise Crorepati Candidates: The role of money power in our elections is evident from the fact that all major political parties give tickets to wealthy candidates. Among the major parties 128(87%) out of 147 candidates analysed from BJD, 96(65%) out of 147 candidates analysed from BJP, 88(61%) out of 145 candidates analysed from INC and 11(27%) out of 41 candidates analysed from AAP have declared assets valued more than Rs 1 crore.

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Crorepati Candidates

Party	Odisha Assembly 2019			Odisha Assembly 2024
Party	Number of Candidates Analysed	Number of Crorepati Candidates	Percentage of Crorepati Candidates	Number of Candidates Analysed	Number of Crorepati Candidates	Percentage of Crorepati Candidates
BJD	146	97	66%	147	128	87%
BJP	145	75	52%	147	96	65%
INC	139	73	53%	145	88	61%
AAP	15	4	27%	41	11	27%
Independent	298	41	14%	425	68	16%

Table: Party Wise Crorepati Candidates: 2019 vs 2024

Figure: Party Wise Percentage of Crorepati Candidates: 2019 vs 2024

Average assets: The average of assets per candidate contesting in the Odisha Assembly Elections 2024 is Rs 2.89 Crore. In 2019 Odisha Assembly Elections, average assets per candidate for 1121 Candidates was Rs. 1.69 crore.

Party wise average assets: Among major parties, the average assets per candidate for 145 INC candidates analysed is Rs. 3.95 Crores, 147 BJP candidates analysed is Rs 6.54 Crores, 147 BJD candidates have average assets of Rs 10.24 Crores and 41 AAP candidates have average assets worth Rs 1.30 Crores.
High asset candidates: The details of top 3 candidates with highest declared assets, contesting in the Odisha Assembly Elections 2024 are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Dilip Kumar Ray	Sundargarh	Rourkela	BJP	2,60,03,34,845	53,50,00,000	3,13,53,34,845 313 Crore+	Y
2	Sanatan Mahakud	Keonjhar	Champua	BJD	1,86,76,12,601	40,91,50,000	2,27,67,62,601 227 Crore+	Y
3	Subasini Jena	Balasore	Basta	BJD	47,52,75,534	87,65,11,950	1,35,17,87,484 135 Crore+	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest declared assets

Zero assets candidates: There are 5 candidates who have declared zero assets. The details of these candidates are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Ramesh Kumar Mahanand	Kalahandi	Bhawanipatna (SC)	IND	0	0	0	Y
2	Purna Chandra Majhi	Rayagada	Rayagada (ST)	BSP	0	0	0	Y
3	Sohan Sipka	Bolangir	Kantabanji	IND	0	0	0	Y
4	Sanjay Kumar Das	Bhadrak	Dhamnagar (SC)	IND	0	0	0	Y
5	Gopal Krushna Mohanty	Jajpur	Korei	Ambedkarite Party of India	0	0	0	Y

Table: Candidates with declared zero assets

Low assets candidates: The details of three candidates with lowest assets (excluding zero assets candidates) are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Movable Assets (Rs)	Immovable Assets (Rs)	Total Assets (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Benudhar Mohapatra	Mayurbhanj	Udala (ST)	IND	645	0	645 6 Hund+	Y
2	Ramesh Jani	Koraput	Lakshmipur (ST)	Republican Party of India (A)	1,000	0	1,000 1 Thou+	Y
3	Kailash Chandra Nayak	Cuttack	Baramba	Samruddha Odisha	1,000^*	0	1,000 1 Thou+	Y

Table: Candidates with declared lowest assets

* On assets value indicates that the candidate has not provided the total in their affidavits, it has been calculated on the basis of details provided by them in the same

Candidates with high liabilities: 677(53%) candidates have declared liabilities in their affidavits. The details of top three candidates with highest liabilities are given below:

S.No.	Name	District	Constituency	Party Name	Total Assets (Rs)	Liabilities (Rs)	Disputed liabilities (Rs)	PAN Given
1	Soumya Ranjan Patnaik	Keonjhar	Ghasipura	IND	1,22,86,15,647 122 Crore+	1,06,21,42,653 106 Crore+	0	Y
2	Subasini Jena	Balasore	Basta	BJD	1,35,17,87,484 135 Crore+	29,24,46,695 29 Crore+	59,30,866 59 Lacs+	Y
3	Niranjan Patnaik	Bhadrak	Bhandaripokhari	INC	86,58,03,946 86 Crore+	20,76,00,000 20 Crore+	0	Y

Table: Top three candidates with highest liabilities

Candidates with high income as declared in the ITR*: The details of top 3 candidates with high income declared in ITR are given below:

S.No.	Name	Party Name	Constituency	District Name	Total Assets (Rs)	Self Source of Income	Spouse's Source of Income	The financial year for which the last income tax return has been filed by candidate	Total income shown by candidate in ITR (Self+Spouse+Dependent) (Rs)	Self income shown by candidate in ITR (Rs)
1	Dipali Das	BJD	Jharsuguda	Jharsuguda	37,35,12,460 37 Crore+	Salary & Allowances for State Govt	NIL	2022-2023	6,45,33,080 6 Crore+	76,49,880 76 Lacs+
2	Purna Chandra Mahapatra	BJP	Barabati-Cuttack	Cuttack	39,34,46,147 39 Crore+	House Rent, Profession & Bank Interest	Salary, House Rent, Business & Profession & Bank Interest	2022-2023	5,05,04,680 5 Crore+	1,55,49,840 1 Crore+
3	Subasini Jena	BJD	Basta	Balasore	1,35,17,87,484 135 Crore+	Business Receipts, Rental Income & Salary	Business Receipts, Rental Income & Pension	2022-2023	3,62,72,174 3 Crore+	89,74,360 89 Lacs+

Table: Top 3 candidates with highest income as declared in ITR

Undeclared PAN: A total of 55(4%) candidates have not declared their PAN details.

Other Background Details

Education details of candidates: 566(44%) candidates have declared their educational qualifications to be between 5^th and 12^thstandard while 652(51%) candidates have declared having an educational qualification of graduate or above. 51 candidates are Diploma holders. 12 candidates have declared themselves to be just literate and 2 candidates are Illiterates.

Age details of candidates: 333(26%) candidates have declared their age to be between 25 to 40 years while 760 (59%) candidates have declared their age to be between 41 to 60 years. There are 188 (15%) candidates who have declared their age to be between 61 to 80 years and 2 candidates have declared their age are more than 80 years old.

Gender details of candidates: 178(14%) female candidates are contesting in the Odisha Assembly Elections 2024. In 2019 Odisha Assembly Elections, 112(10%) out of 1121 candidates analysed were women.

Analysis of Assets Comparison of Re-Contesting MLAs

Number of re-contesting MLAs: Number of re-contesting MLAs analysed in the Odisha assembly elections of 2024 is 103.

Average Assets in 2019 Elections: The average assets of these 103 re-contesting MLAs fielded by various parties including independents in 2019 was Rs 4.51 Crores.

Average Assets in 2024 Elections: The average asset of these 103 re-contesting MLAs in 2024 is Rs 7.80 Crores.

Average Asset growth in 5 years (2019-2024): The average asset growth for these 103 re- contesting MLAs, between the Odisha Assembly Elections of 2019 and 2024 is Rs 3.29 Crores.

Percentage growth in 5 years (2019-2024): Average percentage growth in assets for these 103 re-contesting MLAs is 73%.

Comparative analysis of party wise average assets of re-contesting MLAs in 2019 and 2024

S.No.	Party in Odisha Assembly 2024	Total Number of MLAs	Average Assets in Odisha Assembly 2024 (In Rs.)	Average Assets in Odisha Assembly 2019 (In Rs.)	Average Assets Increase (In Rs.)	Average % Increase in Assets
1.	BJD	74	8,25,27,943 8 Crore+	5,35,80,200 5 Crore+	2,89,47,743 2 Crore+	54.03%
2.	BJP	21	2,31,23,129 2 Crore+	1,32,40,390 1 Crore+	98,82,739 98 Lacs+	74.64%
3.	INC	5	3,63,78,925 3 Crore+	1,63,78,588 1 Crore+	2,00,00,337 2 Crore+	122.11%
4.	IND	2	62,88,51,873 62 Crore+	16,15,48,473 16 Crore+	46,73,03,400 46 Crore+	289.27%
5.	CPI(M)	1	1,11,66,459 1 Crore+	30,17,671 30 Lacs+	81,48,788 81 Lacs+	270.04%
GRAND TOTAL		103	7,80,91,439.63 7 Crore+	4,51,55,247.85 4 Crore+	3,29,36,191.77 3 Crore+	73%

Table: Average asset increase of re-contesting MLAs - party wise

Recommendations of ADR

To remedy the existing problem of criminalization is to immediately act upon the plausible solutions offered by various committees, civil society and citizens. Supreme Court of India being the ultimate custodian of “Justice and Rule of Law” should reprimand political parties and politicians for their complete lack of will, reprehensible predilection and absence of required laws.
Permanent disqualification of candidates convicted for heinous crimes like murder, rape, smuggling, dacoity, kidnapping etc.
Disqualification of persons from contesting elections to the public offices against whom charges have been framed for having committed serious criminal offences punishable by imprisonment of at least 5 years, and the case is filed at least 6 months prior to the election in question.
Cancellation of tax exemptions given to the political parties who field such tainted candidates.
Bringing political parties under the Right to Information Act.
De-register and de-recognise any political party if it knowingly fields a candidate with a tainted background.
Political parties should annually file the information on criminal antecedents of their Office Bearers and make such records available to the public, including NIL records.
Disqualification of candidates furnishing false information in the election affidavit (Form 26).
Ensure trial of cases in which the politicians are accused to be concluded in a time bound manner.
Implementation of SC judgment dated 23^rd September, 2013 (i.e provision of NOTA buttons on the EVMs) in its letter and spirit by ensuring a) if NOTA gets more votes than any of the candidates, none of the candidates should be declared elected, and a fresh election should be held; b) in the fresh election, none of the candidates in the earlier election, in which NOTA got the highest number of votes, should be allowed to contest.
Implementation of the 25^th September, 2018 and 13^th February, 2020 SC orders on 'publication of criminal cases against candidates selected by political parties along with reasons for such selection' in its letter and spirit by directing the Election Commission of India a) to list out names of such tainted candidates selected by the political parties along with such reasons for such selection C8 including diligent publication of reasons in newspapers, T.V channels, party website etc, b) strict and constant reminders by ROs to the defaulters, c) list needs to be religiously prepared and submitted to the Supreme Court after every election, d) uploading of this list on ECI’s website for public inspection, e) a suitably heavy financial penalty levied on political parties for making insufficient disclosures, invalid and common reasons, selection of candidates based on winnability and f) Officer in-charge of a political party pertaining to submission of a compliance report should also be held accountable for such a breach.
The Election Commission of India and all State Election Commissions should make it mandatory in all elections; Parliamentary, Assembly and Local Body elections to carry display boards outside each and every polling booth showing a summarised version of candidates’ affidavits. The polling booths should essentially display details of candidate’s criminal records, assets and liabilities and education qualification.
The Election Commission of India under its ‘Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation’ (SVEEP) as well as through other national campaigns on voter awareness held before every election should inform and aware the voters that (i) taking and giving cash or gifts/freebies for votes is a criminal offense, (ii) such instances should be brought to the notice of the ECI through its web application, (iii) inform voters that information on criminal records of candidates is available on the ECI website, outside polling booths and other sources that the ECI may use.
Political parties in India should be required to announce/publish the list of candidates contesting elections at least 3 months prior to elections.
Role of money and muscle power is evident from the fact that all major political parties in Odisha Assembly Elections 2024 have fielded 27% to 87% candidates who are crorepatis and 17% to 68 % candidates who have declared criminal cases against themselves. This close and alarming nexus between money power and muscle power has got so ingrained in our electoral system that the citizens are left hostage to the current situation. Money and muscle power hurt the principles of 'free and fair elections', 'participatory democracy' and 'level playing field'. The present circumstances therefore demand an extensive deliberation by the voters so that sanctity of elections is not ridiculed by tenacious entry of tainted candidates and candidates with abnormal multiplication of assets.