In at least 24 out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, the NOTA (none of the above) pulled more voters than candidates of some major parties.
Election Commission statistics showed that the NOTA tally was highest in Samastipur (SC) seat with 29,211 votes.
The seat was won by LJP's Ramchandra Paswan, younger brother of party president Ramvilas Paswan, defeating Congress rival Ashok Kumar by nearly 7,000 votes.
About 5.81 lakh voters out of 6.21 crore voters in the state used the NOTA for the first time to provide right to citizens to reject all the candidates of their constituency.
At the Hajipur (SC) seat, won by LJP's Ramvilas Paswan, NOTA votes numbered to 15,094 while it was 12,688 for BSP, 6,344 for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and 4185 for Samajwadi Party, the EC survey said.
Likewise in Madhepura, where JD(U) President Sharad Yadav lost to RJD's Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, the NOTA tally was 21,924 while BSP had 18,084 and AAP secured 9,538 votes.
At the high-profile seat of Saran, where Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi lost to Rajiv Pratap Rudy of BJP, NOTA polled 19163 where BSP gathered a total of 15,500 votes and AAP 5099.
The Arrah seat won by former Union Home Secretary R K Singh on BJP ticket, 14,703 did not vote for anybody. BSP bagged 7,637 votes and AAP 7518 from there.
At Patna Sahib constituency, where BJP's Shatrughan Sinha emerged winner, 7,727 voters voted for the NOTA, it said.
