86% of candidates lost deposits in 2019 Lok Sabha elections

Eastern Mirror Desk

Dimapur, Oct. 12: Almost 86% of the 8026 candidates in this year’s Lok Sabha elections forfeited their election deposits, according to a statistical report released by the Election Commission of India on October 11.

The report showed that the overall polling percentage, including postal ballots, was 67.4%, which is incidentally the highest ever turnout in a Lok Sabha poll. (Refer table 1)

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) forfeited its election deposit in 345 of the 383 Lok Sabha seats it contested with Indian National Congress coming in at second with 148 deposits lost out of the 421 seats it contested. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won an overwhelming 303 seats, also lost 51 of its deposits. (Refer table 2)

Out of the four contesting parties in Nagaland, only two lost their deposits.

As per the report for the state-wise turnout figures, Lakshadweep registered 85.21%, which is the highest across all states and Union Territories. Nagaland came second with a total turnout of 83% while Jammu and Kashmir had the lowest turnout with only 44.97%. With 67.18% turnout, women electors across the nation had a marginally higher turnout than the male electors (67%).