NOTA bags second position in Chhattisgarh bypoll

This is the first time NOTA has emerged as nearest rival of winning candidate

NOTA, the option available for the voters to reject the candidates in the electoral fray, had bagged second position in the Naxal-heartland of Antagarh where assembly by-election was held.

The by-election was necessitated in the constituency as its legislator Vikram was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) from Bastar.

The entire election process saw interesting turn of event that finally culminated into None of the Above (NOTA) bagging the second highest number of votes in the constituency.

This would be probably first time when NOTA had emerged as the nearest rival of the winning candidate.

In Antagarh, 16 candidates filed their nomination papers to contest the by-election. Ironically, 14 candidates including Congress’ Manturam Pawar retreated from the election fray.

The Congress candidate blamed the BJP managers for masterminding the strategy and forcing the party candidate to withdraw the nomination papers at the last moment; leaving no room to field another.

With Roopdhar Pudo of the Ambedkarite Party of India remaining in the fray, BJP’s Bhojraj Nag could not get elected as unopposed---a plan that the BJP managers had reportedly chalked out. Still, the election appeared walk-over for the BJP.

Of the total 151,894 electorate, 75,702 exercised their franchise. But the election results announced Saturday was full of surprises. People preferred to poll for NOTA instead of the second candidate contesting the election.

Nag bagged 63,616 votes, NOTA 13,506 and Pudo polled 12,086.

Chief Minister Raman Singh asserted that votes in NOTA’s kitty were of Congress as its supporters were left in lurch after its official candidate withdrew his nomination papers. “Since the Congress voters did not have option, they voted for NOTA,” he added.

“The percentage of NOTA votes had doubled as compared to November assembly polls that was an overt signal that voters were not interested in the election following BJP’s foul play of forcing Congress candidate to withdraw,” Congress state General Secretary Ramesh Varlyani said.