Participation is more important than winning - this seems to be the driving mantra for thousand of independent candidates who jump into the poll race every time only to end up with a miserable performance.

Over 37,000 independent candidates have participated in the 14 general elections held in the country since independence. However, only 214 of them, less than one per cent, could make it to Parliament while 34,640 have lost their deposits.

In every general elections, independent candidates constitute about 50 per cent of the total contestants, the Election Commission said. While a total of 66,524 candidates participated in all the 14 general elections, the number of independent candidates in these polls was 37,440.

While the winning trend of independent candidates is on the decline, their participation in the elections has been witnessing an increasing trend, indicating that these candidates are unperturbed by the prospects of loss.

The number of independent candidates winning the elections in 1952 was 37 and it increased to 42 in 1957. But, their number then started declining and reached the lowest in 2004 elections when only five independents could emerge victorious.

However, the number of independent candidates have been increasing since the beginning of polls. Their number was 533 in 1952 and constantly increased afterwards. In 2004 general elections, there were 2385 independent candidates while total number of contestants was 5435.

Over 90 per cent of independent candidates forfeit their deposits every elections. In 2004, only 15 independent candidates could retain their deposits while 2370 forfeited the deposits, the EC said.