Independent Parliamentarians Are loosing ground gradually They Were confined to single digit in the last six Lok Sabha elections
In The 15Th Lok Sabha There Were Only 9 Independents.In Theses Elections 99.34% of independents got their deposits forfeited.
The first Lok Sabha constituted in year 1952 had 37 independents, which was nearly 7% of the house
. However, they started loosing ground gradually and the number dwindled down to mere 9 in the 15th Lok Sabha
. In the first General Elections (1952), out of 1874 contestants, 533(nearly 28%) were independents. Encouraged by the performance the participation increased to 31% in the next General Election (1957).
The number of successful independents also increased significantly from 37 to 42.
However, in 1962 Elections for 3rd Lok Sabha, independents could not repeat the performance
. Their number came down to 20 (from 42 in previous Lok Sabha),
which represented a fall of more than 50%. However,
in the 4th Lok Sabha, the number of successful independents rose significantly to 35. Perhaps, it encouraged more independents to enter the fray and in the General Election of 1971 for 5th Lok Sabha, almost 40% of all candidates contested as independents. However, only 14 could manage victory and 94% of them lost security deposits, as they could not muster one-sixth of the total votes polled.
In spite of poor performance in 5th General Elections, the number of independents contesting polls further rose in successive elections. For instance,
in the 6th General Elections, over 50% contested as independents.
In the 7th General Election, it rose to 61%.
The 8th General Elections witnessed a further increase with 71% aspirants contesting as independents.
In the 11th General Elections, 76% of total contestants were independents.
After increase in security deposit in 1998, independents number came down to almost 40% of the total contestants
in the 12th General ElectionsThe number of successful independents from 6th to 15th Lok Sabha remained confined to single digit except in the 9th Lok Sabha, when 12 independents made their way to the House
. It may also be mentioned here that in the last six Lok Sabha elections, the number of independents could never cross the digit of 9..
In 8th General Election of 1984, 98% Independents lost their deposits.
This trend continued from 10th to 15th Lok Sabha.
During these elections 99% Independents lost their deposits.
In 15th General Election, there were 47% independents out of total contestants, and only 9 candidates out of 3831 independent candidates were successful. 99.34% of independents got their deposits forfeited.