None of the above (NOTA) has once again gained spotlight as it dwarfed the margin of victories in several constituencies and gained twice the number of votes compared to candidates from recognised parties, highlighting the voter disenchantment.
Despite being in the last row of the electronic voting machine (EVM), NOTA got more support than many JD(S) and Aam Admi Party (AAP) candidates. Afzalpur led the state in NOTA votes with 4775 votes followed by Aland (4377), Anekal (4006) and Arabhavi (2996).
In total, about 2.7 lakh persons declined to support any of the candidates. On an average about 1200 people in each of the 224 segments prefered to vote for NOTA, leaving behind candidates from well known parties.
JD(S) candidates who failed to cross the 1000 mark in 41 constituencies and many of them were overtaken by NOTA. This included candidates in Aland, Arabhavi, Athani, Aurad, BTM Layout, Babaleshwar, Bantwal and at least 30 other constituencies.
The AAP fared much worse as the party scored lower than NOTA in at least 110 constituencies. As many as 129 candidates of the party failed to cross the 1000 mark.
Dwarfs margins
Gandhinagar was among the eight constituencies where NOTA had more votes that the victory margin. Dinesh Gundurao won by a wafer thin margin of 105 votes, 1692 voters (including 3 postal voters) chose NOTA.
In Jayanagar, NOTA had 1184 votes, against the thin margin of about 100 votes which led to several rounds of recounting into the middle of the night. In Chincholi, Umesh Jadhav's margin of 858 was overtaken by 1003 NOTA votes.
While it was introduced in Karnataka in 2018 as a message to the political parties to field good candidates, candidates with criminal cases and those facing serious charges have continued to be the mainstay of the political parties.
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