Kohima, March 12: The Democratic Alliance of Nagaland may have won the war, but the battles were pitted neck and neck. Twenty-seven of the 37 candidates fielded by the BJP forfeited their deposits while only three of the 60 Congressmen contributed to the government exchequer.
Seventy-eight of the 219 candidates whose results have been declared — the results of two seats are pending — have lost their security deposits of Rs 2,500, contributing Rs 1,95,000 to the exchequer.
The tally for forfeitures shows that 11 candidates of the Nagaland People’s Front, 10 of the Nationalist Democratic Movement, five each of the JD (U) and the NCP, one of the Trinamul Congress, two each of the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the NLDP and nine Independents forfeited their deposits.
Candidates who fail to win at least one-sixth of the polled votes forfeit their deposits.
Congress candidates forfeited deposits only in the three constituencies of Dimapur-3, Wokha Town and Sanis, the last two in Wokha district.
Wokha, incidentally, has been bad for the Congress with the party managing to get just one of the four seats. The Tyui seat went to the Congress.
The alliance was in the doldrums earlier when the BJP candidates expressed their wish to field nominees in the maximum possible seats.
Senior vice-president P.L. Khandelwal had even said that the party would field candidates in all the seats.
There were friendly contests in many seats, where the NPF’s only purpose was to divide the votes.