NOTA, or the none of the above, has secured 202,212 votes in the Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, next only to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Shankar Lalwani who has secured 11,60,627 votes.
The Congress had asked people to vote NOTA after its candidate from the Indore Lok Sabha seat, Akshya Kanti Bam, went to the Indore district collector’s office along with BJP minister Kailash Vijayvargiya and lawmaker Ramesh Mendola, on April 29 and withdrew his nomination. Bam later joined the BJP, which repeated its sitting MP Shankar Lalwani, 62.
Rather than supporting any of the candidates who were still in the fray, the Madhya Pradesh Congress decided to campaign for NOTA.
NOTA gives voters an option to reject all candidates in a constituency.
News agency PTI said the Gopalganj Lok Sabha seat in Bihar recorded the maximum NOTA votes at 51,660, about 5 per cent of the total votes polled in the constituency.
Congress state president Jitu Patwari thanked people for supporting NOTA, saying people have given a befitting response to the BJP, which used money and people to subvert democracy.
According to Election Commission data, Shankar Lalwani has received 78.99% of the votes polled compared to NOTA’s 13.62% share. Bahujan Samaj Party’s Sanjay received 49,277, the third-highest votes (3.29%).
Indore voted on May 13 and saw 61.75% of the 25.27 lakh electors exercising their franchise.
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