AAP candidates' security deposits: Who lost, who retained?

New Delhi, May 25: After an embarrassing defeat of

- led Aam Aadmi Party all across India except Punjab, more than 96% of AAP candidates have lost their security deposits in just concluded Lok Sabha election 2014.

Yogendra Yadav, Kumar Vishwas among losers

In Haryana, all AAP candidates, including Yogendra Yadav in Gurgaon, not only lost the Lok Sabha election but also their security deposits.

Yadav had secured nearly 80,000 votes and had came fourth.

Even high profile candidates like Kumar Vishwas, who contested from Amethi against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and BJP candidate Smriti Irani and Shazia Ilmi, who contested from Ghaziabad also lost security deposits.

Kumar Vishwas got only 25527 votes and came fourth while Ilmi, who quit AAP on Saturday had got mere 89125 votes and came fifth.

In West Bengal, all 4 AAP candidates lost their security deposits. AAP's Pasharul Alam managed a little over 3,600 votes in Raiganj which was won by CPI-M candidate Mohammad Salim, who defeated his nearest rival Deepa Dasmunsi of Congress.

Mihir Biswas, in the fray from Barrackpore, could poll only around 1,700 votes. In Kolkata North, Alok Chaturvedi got about 4,000 votes. Suraj Narayan Singh from Howrah got less than 2,000 votes.

In Rajasthan, AAP candidate Dr Virendra Singh from Jaipur, who got 55,118 votes, less than the over 16.66%, also lost his security deposit.

Kejriwal, Gul Panag managed to 'retain' deposits

However, in Delhi, AAP candidates came at second position in all 7 constituencies and thus managed to save their security deposits.

In Varanasi, Arvind Kejriwal and in Chandigarh, 35-year-old Gul Panag, who got more than 1 lakh votes, retained their security deposits.

In Maharashtra, AAP candidate Wamanrao Sudaishirao from Chandrapur also saved his deposit.

Overall, AAP lost its security deposits in 414 seats out 432 seats it had contested and it got around 2% of total vote share.

What is security deposit?

If a candidate has polled one-sixth or less of the total votes polled in the constituency, the security deposit is forfeited.

According to Election Commission guidelines, a general candidate has to pay a security deposit of Rs.10,000, while candidates belonging to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe categories have to deposit Rs 5,000.

However, if a candidate is elected, the deposit is refunded.

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