The bipolar nature of the 2024 Lok Sabha election has resulted in declining fortunes in terms of votes of the candidates of the small parties as well as independents, the data from the Election Commission of India (ECI) shows. In Pune district, where elections took place for four parliamentary constituencies, 138 candidates were in the fray, of which 130 candidates — 94.20 per cent — lost their deposits. This is higher than the state record of 91 per cent — 1,025 candidates out of 1,121 candidates that were in the fray lost deposits— across 48 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra. In Pune, a total of 35 candidates were in the fray – of which 13 belonged to various registered political parties including five major political parties: BJP, Congress, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen, Bahujan Samaj Party. Among them, except winning candidate Murlidhar Mohol, and runner up Ravindra Dhangekar of Congress, all the candidates lost their deposits including Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi candidate Vasant More. Except three candidates who secured most number of votes, none of them managed to get more than 5,000 votes with 28 candidates failing to even cross the 1,000 mark. NOTA (None of the Above) option received 7460 votes. In Shirur Lok Sabha constituency, 32 candidates contested the poll of which 30 lost their deposits including those from Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and Bahujan Samaj Party. Here, only five candidates got more than 10,000 votes while the threshold to secure the deposit from forfeiture was 2.2 lakh votes. In Maval, where Shiv Sena leader Shrirang Barne won against Sanjog Waghere of the Sena UBT headed by Uddhav Thackeray, a total of 33 candidates were in the fray. Here, 31 candidates including those of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and Bahujan Samaj Party lost their deposits. In the high-profile constituency of Baramati, there were 38 candidates in the fray along with Supriya Sule of NCP (SP), Sunetra Pawar of NCP, and Priyadarshini Kokare of BSP. All the candidates except the Sule and Sunetra lost their deposits with only three candidates barring these two getting more than 10,000 votes. Independent candidate Soyalshaha Shaikh who was allotted Tutari (trumpet) as the election symbol received 14,917 votes largely owing to the symbol’s similarity to NCP(SP) symbol of “man playing turha”. All four candidates propped by Indian Gig Workers Front (IGWF) losts their deposits. The workers cumulatively secured only 5,900 votes, resulting in the loss of their deposit money. Keshav Kshirsagar, president of IGWF, expressed disappointment with the election results, attributing them to polarising election discourse and the voters prioritizing religion and caste over the survival issues. “The issues of survival were raised by our candidates but they didn’t resonate. There is the need for brainstorming regarding the rights of gig workers as protesting is not the only option,” said Kshirsagar. As per the Section 158 (iv) of Representation of People Act, 1951, every candidate contesting a Parliamentary or Assembly elections must deposit a certain security amount (Rs 25,000 for Lok Sabha elections) which is forfeited if the candidate fails to get more than 1/6 of the votes polled. The rule is meant to ensure that only serious candidates enter the election fray.
