rajasthan-elections

Updated: Dec 17, 2018 14:25 IST

Fifteen candidates, three of them former ministers, who contested the Rajasthan assembly election, had to forfeit their security deposits after they failed to secure even one-sixth of the total votes polled in their respective constituencies.

As per section 34(1)(a) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, each candidate contesting the assembly polls is required to deposit Rs 10,000.

Of the 15 who lost their deposits, three belonged to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) whereas 12 belonged to the Congress.

The 15 who lost their deposits includes three former ministers — Ghanshyam Tiwari, the BJP rebel who founded Bharat Vahini Party and contested from Sanganer; Surendra Goyal, water resources minister in the Raje government who contested as an independent from Jaitaran. and Rohitash Kumar, the former transport minister whom the BJP fielded from Thanagzi constituency in Alwar district.

In Thanagzi, the constituency where both the winner (Kanti Prasad) and the runner-up (Hem Singh) were independent candidates, the Congress candidate, Sunil Kumar, too, lost his deposit.

Besides Rohitash Kumar, the BJP candidates who had to forfeit their deposits were Phool Chand Bhinda (Virat Nagar) and Ramchandra Utta (Khinvsar).

Congress candidates who had to forfeit their security deposit include Pankaj Pratap Singh (Siwana), Anil Dangi (Bhilwara), Bhanwarlal Pujari (Ratangarh), Sonu Chitana (Merta), Jasaram Rathore (Marwar Junction), Jeeva Ram Arya (Sirohi), Ritesh Bairwa (Dudu), Murari Lal (Nagar), Ajay Kumar (Mahuwa), Sona Devi (Raisingh Nagar), Daulat Singh Meena (Bassi), and Nanda Ram (Kishangarh) — the last six of these took the fourth spot in their constituencies.

There were several other constituencies where candidates of the two parties took either the third or the fourth spot.

Congress candidates Karan Singh Yadav (Kishangarh Bas), Himanshu Katara (Nadbai), Raiya Meena (Aspur), Manjula Devi (Chorasi), Surendra Kumar (Sagwara), Suresh Choudary (Bhadra), Bhagwan Ram Saini (Udaipurwati), Mahaveer Singh (Pali), Rajesh (Gangapur) and Subhash Meel (Khandela), remained on third spot.

BJP’s Mahendra Kumar (Bansur), Mohit Yadav (Behror), Sandeep Dayma (Tijara), Anita Singh (Nagar), Kailash Choudhary (Baytoo), Kalulal Gurjar (Mandal), Tarachand (Dungargarh), Ram Singh Kaswan (Sadulpur), Rao Rajendra Singh (Shahpura), Phool Chand Meena (Viratnagar), Kamsa (Bhopalgarh), Manju Baghmar (Jayal), OP Saini (Karauli), Ramchandra Utta (Khinvsar), Rajendra (Bamanwas), Bhanwara Ram (Merta), Gordhan (Dhod), Udai Lal Dangi (Vallabhnagar) came third.

BJP’s six candidates polled less than 20% votes — in Thanagzi, Gangapur, Viratnagar, Jayal, Khinvasr, and Bamnwas constituencies — as against the Congress’s 14 — Kishangarh, Siwana, Bhilwara, Ratangarh, Bhadra, Merta, Marwar Junction, Pali, Khandela, Sirohi, Thanagazi, Nagar, Mahuwa, and Raisingh Nagar.

Congress spokesperson Satyendra Singh Raghav said, “After the oath-taking ceremony, we will analyse the reason behind the defeat on every seat. The rebels of our party won on a few seats where our performance was poor. On some seats, we lost due to polarisation of votes.”

BJP state spokesperson Pankaj Meena said, “We will do a detailed analysis of the seats where we performed poorly. For the first time, 25 rebel candidates were elected. These 25 spoiled the equation for both parties.”