 "PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi")
In the 2019 Lok Sabha (LS) elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was one of 23 candidates to contest from two LS seats — Wayanad and Amethi. Rahul lost in Amethi, ruling out the necessity for a bypoll in that constituency. However, in 2014, a bypoll was held in Vadodara when Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi won from both Varanasi and Vadodara and resigned from the latter.
Over the years, the Election Commission (EC) of India has supported arguments that candidates should be restricted to contesting from one seat, citing the waste of public money and resources in holding a bypoll if a candidate were to win both seats.
In 1996, Section 33 of the Representation of the People Act was amended to restrict the number of constituencies from which a candidate could contest to two. Until then, there was no limitation on the number of constituencies from which a candidate could contest.
For example, in 1957, former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, spelt ‘Atal Behari Bajpai’ in EC records of the time, contested from three seats in Uttar Pradesh (UP) — Mathura, Lucknow, and Balrampur, winning Balrampur on the Jana Sangh ticket. In 1962, he contested from two seats as he did in 1991.
Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister (CM) N T Rama Rao would contest from multiple Assembly seats.
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In the 2024 Odisha Assembly polls, being held simultaneously, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik has filed nominations from two seats. His father, Biju Patnaik, in 1971, contested from four Assembly and one LS seats.
In 1989, former deputy PM Devi Lal contested from three seats in three states, Rohtak (Haryana), Sikar (Rajasthan), and Ferozepur (Punjab), winning from the first two.
In 1991, Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mayawati contested from three seats, Bijnor, Bulandshahr, and Haridwar, losing all three.
The list of leaders contesting on more than one seat is long, including Indira Gandhi, L K Advani, Lalu Prasad, Sonia Gandhi, Modi, and Rahul.
In 2023, lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, who is also a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, petitioned the Supreme Court (SC) to declare Section 33(7) of the Representation of People Act invalid.
“My petition argued that since ‘one person one vote’ is a foundational principle of our democracy, so should be ‘one candidate one constituency’,” Upadhyay told Business Standard. The SC dismissed the petition, arguing that it was a matter of legislative policy.
However, Upadhyay maintains that the current law needs amending and points to the reports of Law Commissions and EC’s views over the years that have argued restricting the number of seats that a candidate could contest to one.
“The bypolls, if a candidate wins both seats, cause an unavoidable financial burden on the public exchequer and government sources, and it is an injustice to the voters of the constituency from where the candidate opts to quit,” Upadhyay said.
In July 2004, the Chief Election Commissioner urged the PM to amend Section 33(7), or else the candidate contesting from two seats should bear the cost of the bypoll to the seat that the contestant decides to vacate in the event of winning both seats. It suggested the candidate should contribute Rs 5 lakh for holding a bypoll on an Assembly seat and Rs 10 lakh on an LS seat.
In its 255th report, in 2015, the Law Commission agreed with the EC’s suggestion of one candidate for one seat.
The incidence of an individual Independent candidate contesting from several seats was common before 1996.
‘Serial’ Independent candidates, who would contest from several seats, were a dime a dozen. The most famous of the lot were Madan Lal Dhartipakad of Gwalior, Kaka Joginder Singh of Bareilly, and Kanpur’s Bhagwati Prasad Dixit. Some of them would also contest the Presidential polls, which had the EC increase the number of proposers and seconders that a candidate’s nomination required.
In the 1980 LS polls, and after her loss in 1977, Indira Gandhi, for the only time in her electoral career, contested from two seats — Raebareli in UP and Andhra Pradesh’s (now in Telangana) Medak, winning both.
In Raebareli, she defeated Vijaya Raje Scindia. In Medak, her opponents included Janata Party’s S Jaipal Reddy and ‘human computer’ Shakuntala Devi. Indira Gandhi retained Medak, with Arun Nehru winning the subsequent bypoll in Rae Bareli. However, the list of her opponents in Raebareli that year also included Madan Lal Dhartipakad and Bhagwati Prasad Dixit. Madan Lal also contested that year against Charan Singh in Baghpat and Vajpayee in New Delhi.
The increase in the number of Independents had the 170th Law Commission report concluding that “the time is now ripe for debarring Independent candidates from contesting LS elections”.
The National Commission to review the working of the Constitution in 2002 recommended “discouragement” of Independent candidates, who are often “dummy” candidates or defectors from their party or those denied party tickets.
It also noted instances where Independents with similar or identical names to that of candidates from mainstream parties are fielded to “mislead” the electorate.
In an effort to discourage ‘non-serious’ candidates, the EC increased the security deposits, which were Rs 250 for an Assembly seat and Rs 500 for an LS seat, to Rs 10,000 and Rs 25,000, respectively, for general seats, and Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively, for seats reserved for Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste candidates.
