Election results 2019: Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Mayyam may lose deposit in every seat

• Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan threw in his hat in the ring ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
• However, the candidates from his party, Makkal Needhi Mayyam, are trailing rivals in every seat.
• The party's vote share in every seat is well below than the 16.6% needed to protect the candidate's deposit.

Kamal Haasan launched his new party in February 2018 amid much fanfare and soon after he decided to pit his nascent party, largely made of new comers, into the ring for a fight in the elections for the lower house of India's Parliament, the Lok Sabha.

He hogged the headlines with his comments and controversies in the run up to the polls but the results have been far less than competitive. His candidates seem set to lose deposit in every seat that the party is competing in.

Candidates have to pay an amount of ₹25,000 to stand in a Parliamentary election. The deposit is returned if the candidate wins at least 16.6% vote, but the money is forfeited if the votes are any fewer than a sixth.

In all constituencies that the MNM has fielded its candidates, the vote share far less than the threshold to protect their deposit. While no pundit or opinion poll ahead of the elections gave Kamal Haasan's party any chance of a win, such few votes in every constituency may come as a major embarrassment.

In Tamil Nadu, it's the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leading the way so far along with the Indian National Congress. Rivals BJP and its local ally All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) are also trailing in most seats, but not as badly as the MNM that made its electoral debut this time.


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