Ahead of the recently concluded Assembly polls, former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had called for scrapping the NOTA (None of the Above) option in elections, citing instances of NOTA polling more votes than the margin of victory and claiming that voters may inadvertently choose NOTA. The option sits last after names of all the candidates in an election, and has its own symbol, of a ballot paper with a black cross on it. This time, in as many as 47 seats across Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana, NOTA votes exceeded the winning margin - of them, 20 in Madhya Pradesh, 17 in Rajasthan, 8 in Chhattisgarh and 2 in Telangana. Incidentally, most of these seats were won by very small margins, including the lowest, at 16. Overall though, the share of NOTA votes declined from 1.41% in the 2018 polls to 0.97% this time. Only 1 seat across Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana saw its vote share exceed 5%. NOTA in poll states, 2018 and 2023Incidentally, the most share of NOTA votes in 2018 were in Chhattisgarh, when 4 seats had seen NOTA poll more than 5% of the votes. Only 1 other seat, in Rajasthan, had seen NOTA cross the 5% mark. Chhattisgarh In Chhattisgarh, the BJP won 3 of the 8 seats where NOTA exceeded the winning margin. Incidentally, these seats, Kanker and Ambikapur, were won by a wafer-thin margin of just 16 and 94 votes, respectively. In Ambikapur, it was outgoing Deputy CM T S Singh Deo who suffered a shock defeat, with NOTA getting 2,168 votes. The Congress won 4 of the 8 seats and finished runner-up in the other 4, while the tribal-based Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) won 1 seat. In 5 of the 8 seats, the winning margin was less than 1,000 votes. While NOTA got an average 3,164 votes in these seats, the average winning margin was significantly lower at 1,149 votes. Like in 2018, when Maoist-hit Dantewada saw the maximum vote share of all seats across the four states (8.74%), it again ranked at the top, at 6.4%. The BJP won the seat both times. Madhya Pradesh NOTA votes could have made the difference in 20 Madhya Pradesh seats, of which the BJP won 7 and the Congress 13. In Shajapur, for instance, the BJP won by a 28-vote margin (the lowest in the state), with NOTA getting 1,534 votes. Of these 20 seats, the winning margin was less than 1,000 votes in 12 seats – the BJP won 3 and the Congress 9. While NOTA got an average 2,525 votes in these seats, the average winning margin here was 1,272 votes. In Madhya Pradesh, Jobat saw the highest NOTA vote share at 2.8%; incidentally, it also had the state’s lowest voter turnout this year. The Congress won the seat this year and in 2018. Among the notable winners in these seats was the Congress’s Bala Bachchan from Rajpur. The five-time MLA and former Cabinet minister in the short-lived Kamal Nath government won by just 890 votes in a seat where NOTA got 1,683 votes. Rajasthan In the 17 Rajasthan seats where NOTA votes exceeded the winning margin, the BJP and Congress won 8 each, and the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) won 1. While the average winning margin in these seats was 1,380, NOTA garnered an average 2,467 votes in each. In seven seats, the winning margin was less than 1,000 votes – the BJP won 4 and the Congress 3. Rajasthan’s Jhadol, at 3%, had the highest NOTA vote share in the state. This year, the BJP recorded a consecutive win in this seat. Among the notable candidates in these seats were former NDA ally RLP’s chief Hanuman Beniwal in Khinwsar, who defeated the BJP candidate by 2,059 votes compared to the NOTA tally of 2,130 votes. In Baytoo, former Cabinet minister and All India Congress Committee national secretary Harish Chaudhary won by 910 votes, with NOTA polling 2,173 votes in the seat. In Hawa Mahal, the Congress’s Jaipur district president R R Tiwari, who replaced ex-CM Ashok Gehlot’s close confidant Mahesh Joshi as the party’s candidate, lost to the BJP candidate by 974 votes, while NOTA got 1,463 votes. Telangana In Telangana, NOTA would have made the difference in only 2 seats – Chevella and Devarkadra. The Bharat Rashtra Samithi won the former and the Congress the latter. Notably, Chevella recorded the lowest margin of victory – 268 – in the state, with NOTA getting 1,432 votes. Devarkadra’s margin was 1,392 votes and NOTA got 1,706 votes. In Telangana, Wardhannapet again had the highest NOTA vote share in the state. In 2018, it was 3.1%, and this time, 1.7%. The Congress wrested the seat this time from the BRS, which had won here in the previous two polls.
