Only 20 out of 223 Lok Sabha poll candidates managed to save security deposit

Parveen Arora

Karnal, June 5

Apart from the BJP and INDIA bloc nominees, no other candidate managed to save his/her security deposit in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections in Haryana.

Out of the 223 candidates across 10 constituencies in the state, only those who secured the first or second place retained their deposits, while the remaining 203 candidates failed to garner the required number of votes and thus forfeited their deposits.

The electoral contest in all 10 constituencies was predominantly a two-candidate race between the BJP and INDIA bloc candidates.

As per election rules, a candidate must secure more than one-sixth of the valid votes polled in his constituency to save the deposit.

Every general category candidate has to make a security deposit of Rs 25,000 for the Lok Sabha elections, while the amount in case of SC/ST candidates is Rs 12,500. For the Assembly elections, general category and SC/ST candidates have to deposit Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000, respectively.

In the Karnal Lok Sabha constituency, out of 19 candidates, only BJP’s Manohar Lal Khattar and Congress’ Divyanshu Budhiraja saved their deposits, while in Kurukshetra only BJP’s Naveen Jindal and AAP’s Dr Sushil Gupta saved their deposits from among 31 candidates in the fray.

There were 22 candidates for the Sonepat Lok Sabha seat, but only Congress candidate Satpal Brahmachari and BJP’s Mohan Lal Badoli saved their deposits. In Rohtak, Congress’ Deepender Singh Hooda and BJP’s Dr Arvind Sharma saved their deposits from among 26 candidates. Congress’ Varun Chaudhary and BJP’s Banto Kataria saved their deposits out of 14 candidates in Ambala.

Of the 28 candidates for the Hisar seat, only Congress’ Jai Parkash and BJP’s Ranjit Singh saved their deposits, while BJP’s Krishan Pal and Congress’ Mahender Pratap Singh saved their deposits out of 24 candidates in Faridabad.

There were 17 candidates for the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat, but only BJP’s Dharambir Singh and Congress’ Rao Dan Singh saved their deposits there. In the Gurgaon constituency, only BJP’s Rao Inderjeet Singh and Congress’ Raj Babbar saved their deposits.

43,542 opt for NOTA

• 43,542 voters chose the ‘None of the Above’ (NOTA) option in the LS poll in the state, indicating their dissatisfaction with all candidates
• 6,417 voters opted for NOTA in Gurugram; 5,287 in Bhiwani-Mahendergarh; 6,821 in Faridabad; 3,366 in Hisar; 6,452 in Ambala; 2,320 in Sonepat; 3,955 in Karnal; 2,362 in Rohtak; 4,123 in Sirsa; and 2,439 in Kurukshetra
• 1,113 voters chose NOTA during the Karnal Assembly byelection