12 hours agoWriter: Rajesh Sahu
Sirathu is a seat in Kaushambi district. From here Cheddu Chamar, a pot hawker, is contesting the election. Independent Cheddu is contesting the 11th election of his life. From BDC to MP, have lost every election. While campaigning, he raises the slogan of ‘look here and there, look at once Cheddu Chamar’.
People are liking the way of campaigning for independent candidate of Sirathu Cheddu Chamar. People are taking photos with him. We got this photo from Ravi Kumar’s Facebook.
There are hundreds of people like Cheddu in UP who aspires to become MLA, but they do not win the elections. In 1993, those who wished to win the elections had set a record that has not been broken yet. During that time record candidates contested elections and the security of record candidates was forfeited. Let’s tell the story of that election…
An average of 23 candidates contested on every seat in UP.
In the 1993 assembly elections, there were 422 assembly seats in UP, that is 19 more than today. Just before the elections, the SP-BSP formed an alliance. SP had fielded its candidates on 256 seats and BSP on 164 seats. BJP fielded candidates on all 422 seats. Congress fielded one less, meaning 421 candidates.
Altogether, these four big parties fielded 1263 candidates, but the real election color was given by independents. These people filled the form at wholesale rates and brought the total number of candidates to 9,716. If we calculate the average per seat of 9,716 candidates, then 23 candidates were contesting on each seat.
77 candidates fought on one seat in Agra
A record 77 candidates stood for the seat of Agra Cantt. When the voting was over, there was confusion in the counting. The counting continued for about three days. It is said that the employees engaged in election duty had developed fever during the filing of slips of independent candidates.
90% of the candidates could not save the bail
When the counting was completed, it was found that BJP got 177, SP 109, BSP 67 and Congress 28 seats. Altogether 381 seats were captured by these four parties. Small parties and independent candidates won the remaining 41 seats. The surprising thing is that 8,645 candidates could not save their deposits. This is such a large number that till date so many candidates have not contested for re-election.
What is the bail of a contestant
If a contesting candidate fails to secure one-sixth of the total votes cast, he is considered to have failed to save his deposit. For example, in an assembly seat, 1 lakh votes were cast. The winner got 60 thousand, the second number got 30 thousand and the third number got 12 thousand votes. Meaning the second candidate saved his deposit, but the third one could not get 1/6 of the vote. Therefore, the amount deposited by him at the time of enrollment was forfeited.
At present the security deposit in the assembly elections is 10 thousand. For SC/ST category candidates, this amount is half.
Here the story of the candidates ends, but in the same year another big story was made. Not to form the government after BJP became the single largest party. Let’s see that too…
Most seats, but could not form the government
In the 1993 assembly elections, the BJP won 177 seats, but the majority stood at 212. Small parties did not support BJP. Here SP-BSP formed the government by taking smaller parties with them. Mulayam Singh was CM for one year 81 days and Mayawati was CM for 137 days.
Mulayam fought on three seats, won all
In the 1993 elections, a strange thing was that Mulayam Singh Yadav fought on three seats and won all three. These three seats were from Jaswant Nagar, Nidhonikalan and Shikohabad. Apart from Mulayam, NT Rama Rao of Andhra Pradesh and Chaudhary Devi Lal of Haryana had contested on three seats. NT had won all and Devi Lal lost all three seats. The rule changed in 1996 and after that no person could contest more than two seats.
This photo is from the 1993 assembly elections. In the photo, Mulayam Singh and Kalyan Singh are seen talking.
How many candidates fought after 1993?
The SP-BSP government formed in 1993 broke up in 1995. When re-election was held in 1996, the total number of candidates increased to 4,429. In 2002 this number increased to 5,533, 6,086 in 2007 and 6,839 in 2012. In 2017, where 4,853 candidates contested the elections, this number has increased to 6,000 in this election.
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