Data | How significant were BJP’s deposit losses in 13.8% of Karnataka’s seats? Premium

The BJP lost deposits in 38.4% of the seats it contested in Southern Karnataka

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost deposits in 31 constituencies — 13.8% of the seats the party contested — in the recently concluded Karnataka Assembly elections. Notably, the party won 66 seats in the election, which is 29.5% of the seats contested. These two data points make for interesting reading, for when read together, they hint at a state of dichotomy in Karnataka. More importantly, when compared to all the recent State elections in which the BJP won a significant share of seats, Karnataka is a clear outlier in terms of the share of seats in which it lost deposits.

According to the provisions outlined in the Representation of the People Act of 1951, it is mandatory for general category candidates competing in an Assembly election to deposit Rs. 10,000 and Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) candidates to deposit half of that. In order to retrieve their deposits, candidates must secure a minimum of one-sixth (16.67%) of the total votes polled in their constituency. While the deposits were introduced to reduce the number of candidates competing, they later turned into a matter of pride with those losing deposits facing humiliation.

Also read: After Karnataka, more lessons for the BJP

Scatter Plot 1 | In the horizontal axis, the chart shows the seats won by the BJP as a share of the seats it contested in all the recent State elections. In the vertical axis, the seats in which the BJP lost deposits as a share of seats it contested is plotted.

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As can be observed from the chart, in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Mizoram, Punjab, Kerala and Meghalaya, where the BJP won less than 5% of the seats, it lost deposit in more than 70% of the seats. This is an understandable outcome. Given that the party was routed in these States, it was expected to lose deposits too in many of them. On the other hand, in all the States where it had won more than 10% of the seats, the share of seats in which deposits were lost was understandably low.

Scatter Plot 2 | The chart shows the States where the BJP won more than 10% of seats and plots the seats won by the BJP as a share of the seats it contested in all the recent State elections (horizontal axis) and the seats in which the BJP lost deposits as a share of seats it contested is plotted (vertical axis).