An independent candidate, Vinod Laxman Pokharkar, 35, from Thane paid his ₹25,000 deposit in coins. Reason: He didn’t have the money and had collected it through crowd-funding.
Anil Pawar, the returning officer of the Thane Lok Sabha constituency, said, “Pokharkar got a bag full of coins while filing his nomination on April 8. His form was incomplete, so we told him to file the nomination on April 9. We had to separate the denominations between four staff members and count. It took us more than one-and-a-half hour.”
The resident of Kopar Khairane who is supported by the Maratha Kranti Morcha, said his motive was not to harass the officials. “ A household which had one voter gave me Re 1, the one with two voters gave me ₹2 and so on. I went to more than 6,500 houses in 15 days.”