As many as 65 newly elected Zilla Parishad members are facing serious criminal charges against them as per the election affidavits furnished by them with the returning officers.

9% of the newly elected ZP members have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to attempt to murder, crimes against women etc, according to a report by the Odisha Election Watch (OEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), who analysed the self-sworn affidavits of the victorious candidates.

Odisha Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 726 out of 851 Zilla Parishad Members in the Odisha Panchayat Elections 2022. The rest of the affidavits were not analysed as they were not available or uploaded on the website at the time of making this report.

While 82 (11%) out of 726 analyzed zilla parishad members have declared criminal cases against themselves, 15 elected members have declared cases of attempt to murder (IPC Section-307).

Similarly, 12 zilla parishad members have declared cases related to crimes against women, according to the OEW-ADR report.

While 66 (10%) out of 661 zilla parishad members are from BJD, six (16%) out of 37 ZP members are from BJP followed by 7(32%) out of 22 elected members of Congress, 1(33%) out of 3 members from JMM, 1 (100%) out of 1 member from CPI (M) and 1(50%) out of 2 Independent members have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

A total of 53 (8%) out of 661 zilla parishad members from BJD, 4(11%) out of 37 members from BJP, 6(27%) out of 22 members from INC, 1(33%) out of 3 zilla parishad members from JMM and 1(50%) out of 2 Independent members have declared serious criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.

Out of the 726 zilla parishad members analysed, 95 (13%) are crorepatis, according to

90 (14%) out of 661 from BJD, 3 (8%) out of 37 from BJP and 2 (9%) out of 22 zilla parishad members from INC have declared assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore.

The average of assets per zilla parishad members in the Odisha Zilla Parishad Elections 2022 is Rs 56.60 lakhs.

451 (62%) zilla parishad members have declared their educational qualification to be between 5^th pass and 12th pass, while 256 (35%) zilla parishad members have declared having an educational qualification of graduate and above. There are 6 zilla parishad members who are Diploma holders.

7 zilla parishad members have declared themselves to be just literate and 6 zilla parishad members have not given their educational qualification,

zilla parishad members have declared their age to be between 21 and 50 years while 88 (12%) zilla parishad members have declared their age to be between 51 and 70 years. 373 zilla parishad members have not declared their age in the affidavit.

Out of 726 zilla parishad members analysed, 385 (53%) zilla parishad members are women.