Assembly elections: 70 per cent candidates lost their deposits in 2011
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As many as 687 of the 971 candidates in the 2011 assembly elections had to forfeit their deposits totalling Rs 59.25 lakh as they failed to secure one-sixth of the votes polled. National parties Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lead the pack after independents. Of the 307 independents, 291 forfeited Rs 25 lakh in deposits.
Of the 138 BJP candidates, 133 lost their money totalling Rs 12.2 lakh while all the 122 BSP candidates contributed to the exchequer Rs 9 lakh together. One CPI candidate, Ashrafali Kaliyath, who contested against IUML's P. K. Basheer in Eranad and fell behind an independent, also lost the deposit amount of Rs 10,000, says the data with the state election department.
Muslim League’s P K Basheer won in the constituency and Congress-rebel P.V. Anwar came second. As per norms, each candidate will have to deposit Rs 10,000, except SC/ST communities who need to place only Rs 5,000. The amount will be forfeited if they fail to secure at least one-sixth of the total valid votes polled in the respective constituency.
Of the 888 male candidates in the fray, 627 lost their deposits while 60 of the 83 females faced the humiliation. As many as 189 of the 222 candidates from SC/ST community also lost the deposits. All the 80 candidates of SDPI, 26 of SUCI(C), eight of Shiv Sena, seven of PDP, five of AIADMK and three of CPI (ML) were also among them.
