Out of 873 candidates who ran for the 90 assembly seats, 666 candidates — 76.28 per cent of the total, forfeited deposits. This has earned the Election Commission of India an amount little more than Rs 1.60 crore.
The PDP fielded the highest number of 80 candidates in this election with 57 of them losing their deposits.
In Kashmir, where the party founded by former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and his daughter Mehbooba Mufti has its base, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was routed and reduced from 28 seats in 2014 to just three seats this time.
According to the Election Commission of India data, the PDP fielded candidates on 46 of the 47 seats in the valley. Out of these, 25 candidates forfeited their deposit while 17 other candidates stood second in their constituencies.
The BJP, which fielded 62 candidates across the Union Territory, won 29 seats and 19 of its candidates had to forfeit their deposits.
In Kashmir, the saffron party fielded 19 candidates and all but one had to forego their deposit money. Faqir Mohammad Khan, the BJP aspirant from Gurez, was the only candidate to get more than one-sixth of the polled votes. Khan stood second in the race, losing by a margin of just 1,132 votes.
Prominent among those who forfeited the deposit money were People’s Conference president Sajad Gani Lone (Kupwara), former deputy chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig (Baramulla), Baigs’s wife Safina Baig (Wagoora-Kreeri), former ministers Abdul Gani Vakil (Rafiabad), Mohammad Ashraf Mir (Lal Chowk) and Aijaz Guroo (Sopore), the brother of Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guroo.
Out of the 47 seats in the Valley, five seats saw all the contestants except the winner forfeit their deposits. These segments are Sopore, Baramulla, Habbakadal, Lal Chowk and Central Shalteng.
