E-Paper
Chandigarh: Barring Tewari, Tandon, 17 candidates lose security deposit
As per the Election Commission of India, if a candidate fails to get 1/6 of the total valid votes franchised in the constituency, then the commission seizes the amount deposited by the candidate
With Congress’s Manish Tewari getting 48.3% of the total polled votes, followed by BJP’s Sanjay Tandon winning 47.7% votes, all other candidates in the fray for the lone seat of Chandigarh parliament constituency lost their security deposits by failing to get required vote share.
As per the Election Commission of India (ECI), if a candidate fails to get 1/6 of the total valid votes franchised in the constituency, then the commission seizes the amount deposited by the candidate. Every candidate must deposit a security of ₹25,000 in the case of a parliamentary constituency.
Of the total 4,48,547 polled votes in Chandigarh, Tewari got 2,16,657 votes and won by a margin of only 2,504. Following this, Tandon got 2,14,153 votes.
However, though BSP’s Ritu Singh got 6,708 votes, 1.4% of the total votes polled, her security deposit was confiscated as the vote share was below 1/6 level.
The Independent candidates also lost their deposits as Lakhvir Singh got 2,626 votes, Deepanshu Sharma got 1,068 votes, Ranpreet Singh got 1,054 votes, Vindo Kumar got 683 votes, Sunil Thaman got 577 votes, Baljeet Singh got 436 votes, Sunil Kumar got 321 votes, Partap Singh Rana got 307 votes, Mahant Ravi Kant Muni got 295 votes, Vivek Sharma got 294 votes, Piar Chand 255 votes, Kishor Kumar got 239 votes, Rajinder Kaur got 217 votes, Raj Prince Singh got 205 votes, Pushpinder Singh got 154 votes and Kuldip Rai got 114 votes.
In the 2019 elections, all candidates other than Congress’s Pawan Kumar Bansal and BJP’s Kirron Kher had lost their security deposits, including AAP’s Harmohan Dhawan.
2,912 voters opt NOTA in Chandigarh
As many as 2,912 Chandigarh voters cast their votes for “none of the above” (NOTA) candidate, which is 0.65% of the vote share.
Interestingly, barring Tewari, Tandon and Ritu, all other candidates could get votes lower than NOTA. In the 2019 elections, 4,335 voters (0.95% of total voters) had opted for NOTA. Whereas in the 2014 elections, 0.68% of the total polled votes that is 3,106 had voted for NOTA.
