Of the 17 Lok Sabha elections held from 1952 to 2019, only nine elections have seen candidates other than the winners or runners-up on Prayagraj parliamentary seats—Allahabad and Phulpur—save their deposits. In the remaining eight elections, only the winners and runners-up could save their security deposits.
Analyzing the Election Commission’s data for the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, it emerges that only the winners and runners-up could save their deposits on the four parliamentary seats of the Prayagraj region: Allahabad, Phulpur, Pratapgarh, and Kaushambi.
In Allahabad and Phulpur, from the first election in 1952 to the sixth election in 1977, the security deposit of all candidates except the winner and the runner-up was forfeited. Since the 1971 Lok Sabha elections, the number of candidates started increasing, along with the number of candidates losing their deposits.
The situation was slightly better in the elections of 1989, 1996, 1998, 2004, and 2014. In these five elections, apart from the winner and runners-up, the security deposit of one more candidate was saved. However, in the 1999 elections, four candidates each from both the parliamentary seats were able to save their deposits.
A strange situation was witnessed in the elections for the Pratapgarh seat in 1984, in which the deposits of everyone except the winner were forfeited. This is the only such case on all four seats in the three districts. Out of the 17 candidates in the fray, only Raja Dinesh Singh of Congress, who won the election, could save his security deposit.
In the case of the Kaushambi (formerly Chail) seat, there was only one such election in 1999, in which a maximum of four candidates had saved their deposits. In 1967, 1996, 1998, 2004, and 2014, apart from the winners and losers, the deposits of one candidate each (a total of three) were saved.
Security money is required to be deposited by candidates during the nomination process. This amount is deposited in the government treasury through a treasury challan. According to Election Commission rules, the security deposit is forfeited only from those candidates who fail to get more than one-sixth of the total valid votes cast in an election.
