Key Cong, AAP leaders lose deposits in LS polls
The BJP win in the Lok Sabha polls has ended up ensuring that several senior leaders of the Congress and the AAP, including Salman Khurshid, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Raj Babbar, Kumar Vishwas and Shazia Ilmi, could not manage to win enough votes to save their deposits.
In the LS polls, general category candidates are required to deposit ` 25,000 and to get this amount refunded, one should get at least one- sixth or 16.66 per cent of the total valid votes polled in the constituency.
SC and ST candidate are required to deposit half of the amount. Mr Kumar Vishwas, who contested against Congress vice- president Rahul Gandhi and BJP’s Smriti Irani in Amethi, ended at fourth position winning just 25,527 votes, accounting for about 3 per cent of the over 8.74 lakh ( total) votes polled.
AAP candidate from Gurgaon Yogendra Yadav too lost deposit while Ms Ilmi stood at fifth position in Ghaziabad against BJP candidate and former Army Chief V. K. Singh. She managed 89,147 votes which was 6 per cent of the total votes polled and lost deposit. Even the Congress’ Raj Babbar lost deposit as he only secured 14 per cent of the total votes polled.
Mr Khurshid also lost his deposit as he secured about 10 per cent of the total votes. Ajay Rai, involved in a high- profile fight in Varanasi against Mr Narendra Modi and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, managed to get about 7 per cent votes.
Other prominent faces of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh who lost deposits include former MoS HRD Jitin Prasada, cricketer Mohammed Kaif and actors Nagma and Ravi Kishan.
Mr Aiyar polled less than 6 per cent votes. Former finance minister P. Chidambaram’s son and debutant Karti P. Chidambaram stood fourth by garnering about 10 per cent of the total votes.