A bill seeking to weed out non-serious candidates in elections by more than doubling their deposit in Parliament and Assembly polls was today introduced in the Lok Sabha. The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2009, already passed by the Rajya Sabha, seeks to increase the deposit by a candidate contesting Lok Sabha polls to 25,000 from 10,000 rupees at present. Likewise, the deposit for SC and ST candidates is sought to be raised from 5,000 rupees now to 12,500. <br/><br/>For the Assembly polls, a candidate belonging to general category will now have to deposit 10,000 compared to 5,000 earlier, while those belonging to SC/ST category will have to pay 5,000 rupees against 2,500 previously. Introducing the bill, Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said there is a need to make the electoral process free, fair and equitable by removing the role of muscle power, religion, money and caste. He said the Election Commission made 22 recommendations to be incorporated in the amended Act. <br/><br/>Only five have been cleared by the Standing Committee, he said adding once all the recommendations are cleared, Government will come to the House with further amendments at the earliest. The amendment restricts publication of results of all exit polls till the last polling in an election is held. In staggered election schedules, the telecast of exit polls after each phase of polling affects the outcome in the subsequent phases, the Bill states.