418 candidates lose deposit in Karnataka

Bengaluru: The 13th Lok Sabha election witnessed a new record. This time, out of a total of 474 candidates from 28 constituencies of the state, 418 candidates have lost their deposit. Except for the winning and losing candidates, all the candidates have failed to keep the deposit money.

There were 247 candidates in the final stage of the first phase election held on April 28 in the state, while 227 candidates contested in the second phase election held on May 7. The fate of all of them was announced on June 4, except people who won and 56 candidates who lost, none of them got enough votes to keep their deposit money.

As per the rules of the Election Commission, every candidate contesting the Lok Sabha elections has to deposit Rs 25,000. Cash is received from the candidate and deposited in the government account. After the voting is over and the results are out, the candidates who have kept the deposit will be refunded. The money of those who lost the deposit will be confiscated.

There deposit will remain only if they get one-sixth of the total votes cast in each constituency. For example, if one lakh votes are cast, the deposit money of the candidate who gets 16,667 votes will be safely returned to him or her. If the vote is less than that, the money goes to the government coffers. According to this, 418 candidates who have lost their current deposits in the state will add about one crore rupees to the government treasury. Every election in the state there was competition between BJP, Congress and JDS parties. Since there was triangular competition in many sectors then the number of deposit losers was less.

This time due to the BJP-JDS alliance, there was a direct fight between BJP-Congress and Congress-JDS, so 85 to 90 percent of the votes cast were divided between the first two candidates. As a result, everyone else’s deposit is lost. Among the third placed candidates in all the Lok Sabha constituencies of the state, Independent candidate GB Vinayakumar from Davangere has emerged as the topper by securing the highest number of votes (42,907). What is special is that he has overtaken former DCM KS Eshwarappa (30,050) in terms of votes as an Independent candidate.