Tezpur: A candidate who had come for filing his nomination for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Assam's Tezpur made a rare request that took the district returning officer and others by surprise.
Mahendra Orang, a resident of Rangapara sought permission for paying his security deposit in installments or arrears when he arrived at the district commissioner's office to file his nomination papers for the Sonitpur Lok Sabha constituency on Wednesday. It was the last day of nominations filing for the first phase of the elections.
Orang, candidate of the Voters Party International, said he decided to file his nomination papers at the last minute and so had arrived at the Sonitpur District Commissioner's office on the last day to file his nomination with only 10 supporters.
However, since it was a last-minute decision, he did not have the requisite security amount of Rs 25,000 that is mandatory for depositing during nomination filing. He said his friend was supposed to send him the amount online but it was not credited to his account on time.
Thus, he requested the district returning officer to allow him to pay the amount in installments. He said that he would deposit the remaining amount on the day of nomination verification.
However, his request was rejected and the returning officer told Orang that the Election Commission do not have any such rule whereby a candidate can be allowed to file nomination without security deposit. Thus, Orang had to return home without filing his nomination.
According to the Representation of People Act, 1951, it is mandatory for candidates contesting elections to deposit a security amount. This is Rs 25,000 for Lok Sabha polls and Rs 10,000 for Assembly elections while for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, the amount is Rs 12500 and 5000 respectively. A candidate loses this deposit if he/she fails to secure 16.7 per cent of the total votes polled.
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