Candidates stand to forfeit their security deposit if they get less than one-sixth — or 16.67 percent — of the total votes polled.
In the electoral process, candidates are required to submit a security deposit to the Election Commission of India (ECI) when contesting either a Parliamentary or Assembly election.
As the Congress emerged victorious in the Telangana Assembly elections, winning 64 seats in the 119-member House, the BJP, which was seen as the alternate of the BRS in Telangana a year ago, was able to secure only eight seats.
In addition, the BJP experienced the ignominy of as many of its candidates losing their deposits as the number of seats the Congress won.
In contrast, Congress candidates lost their deposits in 13 seats, while BRS contestants lost deposits in seven seats.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had the most challenging performance, fielding candidates in 106 seats and losing deposits in a staggering 105 of them.
The only exception was in the seat of Sirpur, where the state president RS Praveen Kumar contested and secured the third position.
India, among many countries, has an election deposit rule where contestants have to deposit a certain amount of money with the Election Commission of India (ECI) under Section 34 (1)(a) of the Representation of People Act.
Candidates stand to forfeit this security deposit if they get less than one-sixth — or 16.67 percent — of the total votes polled. Otherwise, they may request for and get a refund of this amount.
The deposit amount is ₹25,000 for Lok Sabha elections and ₹10,000 for Assembly polls for candidates in the general category, and half of that for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Its purpose is to encourage the participation of serious candidates while discouraging frivolous nominations. Losing a deposit is not only a financial setback for the candidates but is also seen as a sign of electoral failure. It can impact the reputation of both the party and the individual candidates.
Moreover, losing a deposit may discourage those who lost it from standing in elections again, as it signifies a lack of public support.
The Telangana Assembly election undoubtedly brought about a significant political shift in the state, and the loss of deposits serves as a reminder of the challenges faced by political parties in securing the support and trust of the electorate.
Losing deposits in 64 seats may be bad news for the BJP now, but one must remember that the party lost deposits in 103 out of the 115 seats it contested in the 2018 elections.
The BJP, which has increased its vote share from 6.98 percent in 2018 to 13.9 percent in recent elections, has seen the percentage of deposit losses drop from 87 percent to 57 percent.
The party managed to salvage its reputation in Northern Telangana by winning several seats there and avoiding deposit losses in many constituencies. However, the majority of seats where deposits were lost are in the southern region of Telangana.
One notable figure who endured electoral and deposit losses is actor P Babu Mohan, a former labour minister in the TDP government from 2002 04 in erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh. He joined the BRS in 2014 and became an MLA from Andole.
After joining the BJP in 2018, he contested the Andole seat in the recent elections but secured only a 2.6-percent vote share.
Similarly, former MP Jithendra Reddy’s son AP Mithun Reddy contested from Mahabubnagar and also faced a deposit loss with only a 10.97-percent vote share.
BJP contestant Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy secured 38.38 percent vote share in the Munugode by-election in 2022.
However, when he contested on a Congress ticket in the recent elections, he won the seat with over 51 percent of the votes. The current BJP candidate, Ch Krishna Reddy, in contrast, secured only 9.55 percent of the vote share.
Furthermore, the BJP candidates from Dornakal, Palair, and Sathupalli secured less than 1 percent of the vote share.
In 55 constituencies, the party secured less than 10 percent of the vote share, leading to the loss of deposits.
Additionally, BJP ally Jana Sena, which contested eight seats in the state, faced such defeat in all the constituencies that it resulted in the loss of deposits.
The Congress, despite securing a majority with 64 seats, also faced the setback by losing deposits in 13 of the seats it contested in the state.
It’s noteworthy that in the 2018 Assembly election, the party lost deposits in only six seats when it contested 94 seats. However, this time, the party lost deposits in seven more seats.
The 13 seats this time include all the seven seats won by the AIMIM, as well as the Goshamahal seat, in the Old City of Hyderabad.
In the Yakutpura constituency, the party secured the fifth position with a 4.95 percent vote share. Additionally, deposits were lost in the Amberpet constituency in the city.
In the northern region of the state, the Congress lost deposits in the Dubbak, Mudhole, Nirmal, Siddipet, and Sirpur constituencies.
The BRS, which had won the previous election in 2018, also faced deposit losses in seven seats, all of which are in the old city of Hyderabad, where the AIMIM secured victories.
The AIMIM, despite having the highest winning margin of 77.7 percent after the CPI, experienced deposit losses in two seats — one in Jubilee Hills and another in Rajendernagar.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist), a national party that contested 19 seats, lost deposits in all of them.
In a peculiar turn of events in the Hyderabad region, on two seats, all three major parties — the BRS, the Congress, and the BJP — lost their deposits.
In Chandrayangutta, where the AIMIM’s Akbaruddin Owaisi contested, the voter turnout was above 64 percent, and all three major parties failed to secure the required vote share to retain their deposits. The remaining votes were divided between the BRS (11.78 percent), the BJP (10.67 percent), and the Congress (9.49 percent).
In Yakutpura, the competition was between the AIMIM and the MBT, with the BJP securing a 15.92 percent vote share, the BRS securing 11.05 percent, and the Congress securing 4.95 percent.
In the Charminar constituency, both the Congress and the BRS lost their deposits, while in Nampally, the BJP and the BRS faced a similar fate.
Notably, in the Siddipet constituency, where Harish Rao contested, both the BJP and the Congress lost their deposits by securing 12.79 percent vote share each.
This indicated a unique scenario where all major parties faced deposit losses in specific constituencies in the Hyderabad region.
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