AAP candidate among 16 lose security deposit

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 23

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Justice Jora Singh (retd) is among the 16 of the 19 candidates who have lost their security deposited to contest the Lok Sabha poll from Jalandhar.

As many as 10,18,998 votes were polled. The candidates were required to poll 1,69,883 votes to retain their security deposit. As per the Election Commission of India (ECI), a candidate must earn at least one-sixth of the total votes to save his deposit. Justice Jora Singh got 25,467 votes, much less than the required number.

Only three leading candidates —Santokh Singh Chaudhary (INC), Charanjit Singh Atwal (SAD) and Balwinder Kumar (BSP) managed to save their security deposit.

While the amount required to be deposited was Rs 25,000 from a general seat, it was half ie Rs 12,500 from a reserved seat in Jalandhar.

Besides, the AAP candidate, Shiv Sena leader Subhash Goria, Bahujan Samaj Party (Ambedkar) candidate Tara Singh Gill, social worker Kashmir Singh Ghugshore of CPI (ML) New Democracy party and priest Nitya Anand also lost the deposit.

Independent candidates Opkar Singh Bakhshi, Amrish Kumar, Sukhdev Singh, and Neetu Shutteran Wala were among others to lose their money. Urmila, a daily wager and a native of UP, from Ambedkar National Congress, who had only Rs 295 as her assets, too lost the money.

Shiv Sena candidate Subhash Goria had polled 2438 and Bahujan Samaj Party (Ambedkar) candidate Tara Singh Gill 2,452 votes. Kashmir Singh Ghugshore, who was contesting from the Kartarpur assembly constituency on the issue of development, right of depressed class, unemployment and social oppression, lost his security amount for the fourth time.

This CPI (ML) New Democracy leader had lost three Assembly elections in 2007, 2012 and 2017. He got 4,077 votes, maximum among the Independent candidates. Five votes were polled in favour of Neetu Shutteran Wala in the first round. He actually got 856 votes.

Fact file

As per the ECI, any candidate who receives less than one-sixth of the total vote polled forfeits his security deposit. For the general candidate, the security deposit amount is Rs 25,000 and 12,500 rupees for the contestants from the underprivileged category. A total of sixteen candidates in the district forfeited their security deposits.