With the forfeiture of security deposit, 796 candidates lost an amount totalling Rs67.40 lakh in the Assembly polls held in November month last year. Besides the winning candidates of the 90 Assembly constituencies of the State, only 100 candidates could save their deposit.
A total of 986 candidates had fought the election in the 90 Assembly seats of Chhattisgarh, of which 660 were of the General Category, 225 of the Scheduled Tribe (ST) and 101 of the Scheduled Caste (SC). Among those who fought the election, 901 were male and 83 women candidates, of them 735 men and 59 women could not save their deposit. The security deposit amount for General Category was Rs10,000, whereas the same of Reserved Category was Rs5,000.
A total of 115 candidates from national parties are among those who have lost their deposit. Among the national parties, 84 candidates of the BSP lost their deposit. The BSP had fielded its candidates in all the 90 seats, of which only one emerged victorious and five others could save their deposit.
The party got 5,58,424 votes from all the 90 Assembly seats, which is only 4.29 per cent of the total votes. One candidate of the Congress lost his deposit. 12 out of 13 candidates of CPI, four candidates of CPM and all the 14 candidates of NCP have failed to save their deposit.
Deposit of 118 candidates of State-level parties has been forfeited. Besides, 210 candidates of registered political parties have failed to save their deposits. 335 independent candidates had fought the election, of which deposit of 353 has been forfeited and only one candidates emerged victorious and another one was successful in saving his deposit.
Similarly, deposit amount of Rs55.20 lakh of 552 general category candidates has been forfeited, whereas, Rs8.25 lakh of 165 scheduled tribe candidates and Rs3.95 lakh of the 79 scheduled caste candidates forfeited. As such, 796 candidates lost their deposit amount of Rs67.40 lakh.