Delhi Polls: Over 500 Candidates Forfeit Deposits, Ex-ministers Tirath, Walia and Yusuf Among Losers

New Delhi: Over 500 of the 672 candidates who fought the high-stakes Delhi Assembly polls lost their deposits, according to data shared by the Election Commission on its website.

Former Union minister Krishna Tirath, ex-Delhi ministers A K Walia, Haroon Yusuf and Parvez Hashmi, and Poonam Azad, wife of the party's campaign committee head and former cricketer Kirti Azad, were among the 63 Congress candidates who forfeited deposits after the party received a drubbing in the February 8 polls.

As per the constituency-wise data shared on the EC website, a total of 529 candidates lost deposits.

In a near-repeat performance of 2015, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday retained power with a stunning victory, winning 62 of the 70 assembly seats and leaving the BJP with just eight seats.

The Congress, suffering yet another poll debacle, drew a blank for the second successive assembly elections in Delhi.

The grand old party's performance in the just-concluded Delhi Assembly elections touched a record low with the party bagging less than five per cent votes and 63 of its candidates losing their deposits.

The party had ruled Delhi for 15 years on the trot under former chief minister Sheila Dikshit.

Only three candidates -- Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar, Devender Yadav from Badli and Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar -- could save their deposits.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which had fielded candidates from 68 of the 70 seats, lost deposits in all the constituencies, according to data shared on the website.

Candidates of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) which had tied up with the Congress to fight the Delhi polls, lost from all the four seats.

The Congress had fought from 66 seats, and the RJD from the rest of the four seats -- Burari, Kirari, Palam and Uttam Nagar.

The security deposit of a candidate is forfeited if he or she fails to secure one-sixth of the total valid votes cast in a constituency.

Former Union minister for women and child development Krishan Tirath lost from the reserved seat of Patel Nagar, getting just 3,382 votes, accounting for a mere 2.8 per cent of the votes polled in the constituency.

Pradeep Kumar Rawal, the BSP candidate in Patel Nagar, finished last among the four candidates for the seat, and got 674 votes, even less than NOTA votes (767).

Yusuf got 4,802 votes in Ballimaran seat, finishing third behind his AAP and BJP rivals. His vote share in the seat won by the AAP, stood at a mere 4.73 per cent.

Other former Delhi ministers Walia and Hashmi also finished poor third in Krishna Nagar and Okhla constituencies, respectively.

Delhi Congress chief Shubhash Chopra's daughter Shivani Chopra, who was the party candidate from Kalkaji seat, also could not save her deposit. AAP's Atishi won the seat with 55,897 votes and Chopra got just 4,965 votes.

Former Delhi Assembly speaker Yoganand Shastri's daughter Priyanka Singh, also forfeited her deposit. The vice-president of Delhi Mahila Congress got only 3.6 per cent votes.

In Sangam Vihar, Poonam Azad lost badly and stood fourth, polling only 2,604 (2.23 per cent) votes.

Devender Yadav, the party's candidate from the Badli seat, polled 19.66 per cent votes, while Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar got 19.14 per cent.

The Congress' Kasturba Nagar candidate Abhishek Dutt, an SDMC councillor, got 21.42 per cent votes and stood a distant third.

Alka Lamba, the outgoing MLA who switched to the Congress last year, could garner only 5.03 per cent votes, while the youngest candidate this election and former DUSU president, Rocky Tuseed, polled 3.8 per cent votes.

The BJP and its allies JD(U) and LJP finished second in 62 seats, not losing their deposits from any of the seats.

JD(U) candidates fought from Burari and Sangam Vihar, while the LJP from Seemapuri reserved seat.

A total of 672 candidates, 593 men and 79 women, were in the fray for the hotly contested elections.

In 2015 assembly polls, the AAP had routed rival parties by winning 67 seats while the BJP was reduced to mere three seats and the Congress had drawn a blank.