Salman Khurshid, Kumar Vishwas, Shazia Ilmi, among prominent faces to lose deposit

NEW DELHI: Many prominent leaders from Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, including Salman Khurshid, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Raj Babbar, Kumar Vishwas and Shazia Ilmi could not manage to win enough votes to save their deposits. AAP's vociferous leader Kumar Vishwas, who fought against Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and BJP's Smriti Irani in Amethi, ended at fourth position winning just 25,527 votes, accounting for about 3 per cent of over 8.74 lakh (total) votes polled.

For Lok Sabha elections, general category candidates are required to deposit Rs 25,000 and to get this amount refunded, one should get at least one-sixth or 16.66 per cent of the total valid votes polled in the constituency. Scheduled caste and tribes candidate are required to deposit only half of the amount. Political scientist and AAP's candidate from Gurgaon Yogendra Yadav too lost deposit.

Ilmi stood at fifth position in Ghaziabad against BJP candidate and former army chief V K Singh by managing 89,147, which was 6 per cent of total votes polled. Even Congress candidate from the constituency Babbar managed to get 14 per cent of total votes polled and lost his deposit.

Congress leader and former External Affairs Minister Khurshid also lost his deposit as he could win only about 10 per cent of total votes. Ajay Rai, who was Congress' candidate in the high-profile fight in Varanasi against BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, managed to get about 7 per cent votes.

Other prominent face of Congress in Uttar Pradesh who lost deposits include former Minister of State for Human Resource Jitin Prasada, cricketer Mohd Kaif and actors Nagma and Ravi Kishan. A random check of several constituencies showed more voters preferred None of The Above (NOTA) option over AAP candidates. Aiyar, who contested from Mayiladuthurai seat, polled less than 6 per cent votes.