What is the exact status when a contestant loses deposit?
Posted on: 28/Mar/2019 12:18:21 PM
With the intensity of campaign for the coming elections picking up furiously, one can frequently hear some statements such as: That contestant will not even get his deposit back! What is meant by deposit? What is the exact amount?
All the parties come with a bombastic statement that the opponent will not even get his deposit back!
What is ‘deposit’? - As per the Indian Constitutional Act, all the election consultants must pay a fixed amount to the Election Commission as ‘deposit’. This is Rs. 25000 for parliamentary seats and Rs. 10000 for Legislative Assembly seats.
What is it for? – This is against the general observation the people contest in the election just to promote themselves by filing their nominations!
Will the Election Commission refund it? – As soon as the counting of votes is completed, the deposit will be refunded only if the candidate has procured at least 1/6th of the total votes in the constituency. Otherwise, he will be deemed to have lost his deposit!
