Hyderabad: Badami Assembly constituency in Karnataka, where the state’s outgoing chief minister Siddaramaiah had contested polled more votes for NOTA than his victory margin.
In Badami, NOTA got 2,007 votes while Mr Siddaramaiah’s victory margin was 1,696 votes. Over 3.2 lakh votes or 0.9 per cent of the total votes were polled for NOTA across Karnataka, suggesting growing dissatisfaction with political parties and contesting candidates.
The highest number of votes for “None Of The Above” (NOTA) were polled in constituencies in south Bengaluru and other urban pockets. In seven constituencies, NOTA count was more than the victory margin of the winning candidate. Of this, one was won by the BJP, and six by the Congress.
Voter interest in the NOTA option has been steadily increasing after it was introduced on the EVM machines. The percentage of NOTA votes were 1.8 per cent in Gujarat (2017). 2.5 per cent in Bihar (2015) and 1.52 per cent in West Bengal (2016).
