A candidate can contest from how many seats? Find out what the rule says

Rahul Gandhi will contest from Wayanad Lok Sabha seat but it is not yet clear whether he will contest from Amethi or not. In the 2019 elections, he contested from both Amethi and Wayanad seats. However, Union Minister Smriti Irani defeated him from Amethi. This is not the first case of contesting on two seats. In 2014, Prime Minister Modi contested from Varanasi and Vadodara Lok Sabha seats and won both the seats. In 1957, former Prime Minister and Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee contested from 3 Lok Sabha seats.

Jan Sangh had given tickets from Lucknow, Mathura and Balrampur. He lost the election from Lucknow, forfeited his deposit in Mathura but won from Balrampur and reached the Lok Sabha. Then the question is that a candidate can contest from how many Lok Sabha seats?

How many Lok Sabha seats can a candidate contest from?

According to Supreme Court Advocate Ashish Pandey, the maximum number of seats any candidate can contest is mentioned in Section 33 (7) of the Representation of the Act 1951. The rule says that a candidate can contest from a maximum of 2 seats. Then the question also arises that how did the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee contest the election from 3 seats in 1957. After 1951 there were several situations where political parties fielded one candidate from several seats.

There were many reasons. Often this was done to cut votes and many times a strategy was adopted to get more seats by fielding influential faces. This continued till 1996. Subsequently, the Representation of the Act 1951 was amended and the number of seats was reduced, after the amendment the rule was that a candidate could not contest more than two seats in a Lok Sabha election.

What if both seats are won?

Experts say that campaigning in many areas, contesting elections can be a waste of government resources and money. So when a candidate contests from two seats, even after winning, he has to give up one seat. Then the preparation for the by-election starts there. This also increases the burden on the government treasury. In 2014, Prime Minister Modi won from Vadodara and Varanasi, became MP from Varanasi and vacated the Vadodara seat, after which a by-election was held there.

In 2023, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court regarding it. In which candidates were appealed to be restrained from contesting elections in more than one constituency. However, the Supreme Court canceled it. The petition challenged the constitutionality of Section 33 (7) of the Representation of the Act, 1951, stating that it was unfair to place an additional burden on the government exchequer as a by-election would surely be held after this as the candidates would have to vacate a seat.