VOTERS ARE WARY OF INDEPENDENTS IN LOK SABHA POLLS

Jaipur: After every Lok Sabha election, the number of independent MPs is continuously decreasing. Besides, the graph of votes received by independent candidates is also decreasing. Till now, the 1957 election witnessed the highest number of independent MPs at 42 in the Lok Sabha. Earlier, in the country’s first general elections in 1952, the number of independent MPs was 37 while in the 1962 Lok Sabha polls, the number of independent MPs was reduced to 20. This was the year when the number of independent MPs dropped by more than half compared to the previous election. However, in the subsequent elections, the number of independents once again increased. A total of 3,438 independent candidates were in the fray in the 2019 general elections. But out of these, only four won.

In the 1967 Lok Sabha elections, 35 independent candidates reached the Lok Sabha. Once again the number of independent MPs increased in this election. However, this was the last election in which independent candidates reached the Lok Sabha by winning in large numbers. Their numbers continued to decline in the years that followed. In 1971, 14 independent candidates and in 1989, 12 independent candidates won the Lok Sabha elections. Apart from this, the number of independent MPs has never reached double figures in the elections held so far.

In the 1991 Lok Sabha elections, 5514 independent candidates were in the fray and of these only one managed to secure a win. This is the lowest figure of an independent MP in the Lok Sabha.

FOUR VETERANS WON EVEN IN MODI WAVE

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP won a landslide victory under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi. Many big leaders of other parties lost the fight in this election however, four independent candidates managed to win creating a lot of buzz. There was a lot of discussion about these four candidates who won the elections and reached the Lok Sabha. Navneet Rana reached the Lok Sabha after winning the election from the Amravati seat of Maharashtra as an independent candidate. Apart from this, independent candidate Sumanlatha won the election from the Mandya seat of Karnataka. She defeated Nikhil, son of then Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. Kokrajhar Lok Sabha seat in Assam was one of the four Lok Sabha seats in the country where an independent candidate won the election in 2019. Independent candidate Naba Kumar Saraniya won from this seat. Independent candidate Delkar Sanjibhai won from the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.