Chennai :

Annoyed at the state government’s apathy over addressing local farmers’ issues, 1,016 farmers turned contestants themselves and filed nominations in Modakurichi. As the state government’s attempt to convince them withdraw from election failed, it resulted in a logistical nightmare for the Election Commission. Imagine, it had to print ballot papers like newspapers and ensure that the ballot boxes were more than four-feet tall to accommodate the ballots.





Nightmare for EC

Not only that, polling time was extended by two hours so that voters could read the ballot sheet fully before deciding whom to vote for. According to Election Commission sources, initially 1,088 candidates registered to contest, but 42 nominations were rejected, while 13 withdrew on their own. Finally, 1,033 entered the fray.





DMK’s Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan defeated ADMK’s RN Kittusamy in the election. Except the ADMK candidate and an independent, remaining 1,030 contestants lost their deposits. Strangely, 88 candidates did not poll a single vote, which meant these candidates did not even vote for themselves. Another 158 candidates polled one vote each. Interestingly, the lowest number of contestants in the same election was recorded in Orathanadu constituency in Thanjavur district where only three contested.





Other examples

The year 1996 was a watershed year for the Election Commission as the increased number of candidates was also seen in the Parliament elections that year. Nalgonda constituency in present day Telangana saw 480 contesting with 477 losing their deposit. The same year, Belgaum in Karnataka and East Delhi constituencies saw 456 and 123 contestants respectively. These three constituencies hold the record for the three highest number of candidates in India.





Cause and effect

Local issues were the reason for the spike in number of contestants in these elections. While Nalgonda residents were annoyed that their water issue was not resolved, Belgaum voters were irked that their area was not allowed to be part of Maharashtra. Both issues are still unresolved.





Inquiries by the Election Commission revealed that one of the reasons for the higher number of candidates was the very low fare fixed as the deposit amount. It was Rs 500 (general candidates) and Rs 250 (SC candidates) for Parliament election. Later, this was raised to Rs 25,000 and Rs 12,500 respectively. Similarly, state assembly deposit rates were raised from Rs 250 (general candidates) and Rs 125 (SC candidates) to Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively.