Bhubaneswar: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Narendra Mohanty from Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat has the highest number of 28 criminal cases pending against him among the 98 candidates in the fray for 10 Lok Sabha seats going to polls on April 10 in Odisha.
Mohanty in his affidavit declared 28 cases against him, but he has not been convicted in any of them so far. Of the 28 cases, three are murder, one is attempt to murder and one is dacoity with murder, Ranjan Kumar Mohanty, state coordinator of Odisha Election Watch said today.
Lambodar Kanhar, an Independent candidate from Kandhamal constituency, is ranked second with seven serious cases against him followed by BJP nominee Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo, wife of state BJP president Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, from Bolangir with three cases against her, incldung an attempt to murder.
Stating that 19 of the 98 candidates had criminal cases pending against them, he said 13 had serious criminal cases like murder, attempt to murder, dacoity and criminal intimidation pending against them.
The candidates with cases related to crime against women were Lambodar Kanhar, Sukanta Kumar Panigrahi of BJP from Kandhamal, who had a case pending against him for assault and use of criminal force against a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty, and Ashok Bisi of CPI from Bargarh who had a case of cruelty towards wife.
A party-wise analysis revealed that 4 out of 10 candidates fielded by BJP, one of 10 candidates from INC, two of 10 of BJD, three of 8 AAP candidates, one of 10 BSP candidates, one candidate of CPI (M) and two of 17 of Independents had criminal cases against them.
Taking red alert constituencies into account, two of them -- Kalahandi and Kandhamal -- had at least three candidates each with criminal cases against them.