Rajasthan elections: 15 constituencies where NOTA votes outscored victory margin

NEW DELHI: In Rajasthan assembly elections, at least 15 constituencies polled more NOTA (None Of The Above) votes than the victory margin of the winning candidates. Votes polled as NOTA could have yielded 7 to 8 more seats to either the Congress or the BJP. None of The Above (NOTA) option gives the voter the choice to reject all candidates in the election fray. Health minister Kalicharan Saraf in the outgoing Vasundhara Raje led BJP government won by 1704 votes from Malviya Nagar constituency where NOTA was exercised by 2371 voters. The lowest victory margin was witnessed in Asind constituency where BJP's Jabbar Singh Sankhala trounced Congress's Manish Mewara by only 154 votes while 2943 voters opted for NOTA. Similarly, in Pilibanga, BJP's Dharmendra Kumar defeated Congress's Vinod Kumar by just 278 votes but 2441 NOTA votes were polled, as per the election commission data. While on Marwar Junction seat independent candidate Khushveer Singh defeated BJP's Kesaram Choudhary by 251 votes against 2719 NOTA. The other assembly constituencies where NOTA votes were recorded more than victory margin include: Ghatol, Chohtan, Pachpadra, Bundi, Chomu, Pokaran, Khanpur, Khetri, Makrana, Dantaramgarh and Fatehpur. However, most of the NOTA votes were exercised by the people of Banswara district, which comprises five assembly seats. Kushalgarh constituency of Banswara district recorded highest 11,002 NOTA votes where victory margin was 18950 votes. Bagidora witnessed 5581 NOTA votes followed by 4857 in Ghatol, 4594 in Garhi and 3876 NOTA votes in Banswara assembly segment. The Congress emerged as the single-largest party in Rajasthan in Tuesday's vote count, winning 99 seats. It's ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) won one seat for a total of 100 seats -- the required number to form government. The BJP got 73 seats, and the Bahujan Samaj Party won 6 seats. The CPI(M) got two seats, Independents won 13 and other parties got 5, according to the state Election Commission. Also, the NOTA option appeared to have outperformed several political parties, including AAP and Samajwadi Party, which contested the assembly polls in the five states. According to the Election Commission's website at 5.45 pm on Tuesday, the NOTA votes ranged as high as 2.1 per cent in Chhattisgarh to 0.5 per cent in Mizoram. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which fielded its candidates on 85 seats out of 90 seats in Chhattisgarh, got 0.9 per cent of votes while NOTA votes were 2.1 per cent of the counted votes in the state. Similarly, Samajwadi Party and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) got 0.2 per cent and 0.2 per cent votes respectively in Chhattisgarh. The Communist Party of India (CPI) got 0.4 per cent votes in the state. In Madhya Pradesh, NOTA votes were 1.5 per cent of the total counted votes. Samajwadi Party got one per cent while AAP got 0.7 per cent votes. The NOTA votes in Rajasthan elections were 1.3 per cent. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and SP got 1.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent votes respectively. The AAP and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) received 0.4 per cent votes each in the state. In Telangana assembly polls, NOTA got 1.1 per cent of votes while NCP got 0.2 per cent of votes. The CPI(M) polled 0.4 per cent votes while CPI received 0.4 per cent votes. In Mizoram, NOTA got 0.5 per cent of votes while People's Represent for Identity and Status of Mizoram (PRISM) got 0.2 per cent of votes.