NOTA joke: Netas face rejection slur

BHUBANESWAR: Incredible as it may sound, 3.32 lakh people pressed the NOTA (none of the above) button during the Lok Sabha election in Odisha, results of which were announced on Friday. The popularity of the NOTA option among voters proved decisive in three Lok Sabha segments-Nabrangpur, Koraput and Bargarh. In these three constituencies, NOTA votes were significantly higher than victory margins.
In Nabrangpur, where BJD's Balabhadra Majhi defeated sitting MP Pradeep Majhi by 2,042 votes, 44,408 voters preferred NOTA, the highest in any LS seat in the state. Prabhas Singh of BJD beat BJP's Subash Chouhan by 11,178 votes in Bargarh, while 14,500 voters there chose NOTA. In Koraput, where Jhina Hikaka (BJD) trounced former chief minister Giridhar Gamang (Cong) by 19,328 votes, 33,232 voters pressed the NOTA button.
"The narrow victory margins seem especially significant when seen against the number of people who chose NOTA. It is also surprising that in the tribal-dominated areas of Nabrangpur and Koraput, so many people were aware of the NOTA option in the first place," said Amareshwar Mishra, a retired professor of political science in Utkal University.
The significant number of negative votes, after the NOTA option became available for the first time in general elections, showed voters' disillusionment with the candidates, he said, adding that parties should not ignore the trend.
Among other constituencies, many voters opted for NOTA in Keonjhar (26,065), Mayurbhanj (23,517), Balangir (21,043), Kalahandi (20,880) and Aska (15,382). NOTA's vote share (1.5%) in the LS polls is the fourth highest after that of BJD, Congress and BJP.
NOTA polled more votes than the Pyarimohan Mohapatra-led Odisha Jan Morcha, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik's Aama Odisha Party, CPI, CPM and JMM. An average of 16,000 people pressed the NOTA button in each Lok Sabha seat.
In the assembly elections, too, 2.71 lakh voters exercised the NOTA option. This is 1.3% of the total votes polled. In chief minister Naveen Patnaik's constituency (Hinjili), 1,895 voters chose NOTA.
In the Bijepur assembly segment, where finance minister Prasanna Acharya lost to Congress's Subal Sahu by a whisker (458 votes), as many as 1,285 voters chose NOTA. Similarly, in Mohana, where BJD's Basani Mallick won by a margin of just 115 votes, 3,604 voters chose to reject all candidates.
A deeper analysis of the results also showed that more people went for the NOTA option in Left-wing extremism affected areas compared to coastal parts, which may be a reflection of peoples' disappointment with the electoral process.
Balasore (7716), Bhadrak (6750), Cuttack (8889), Bhubaneswar (8140), Puri (9150) and Kendrapada (7610) witnessed low NOTA votes. Ironically, various civil society organizations had launched a campaign for NOTA awareness using the social media and by organizing symposiums in Cuttack, Puri Jagatsinghpur and Dhenkanal.
Countrywide, NOTA got a vote share of 1.1%. Ranjan Mohanty, convenor, Odisha Election Watch, which tracks election results, said more analysis was needed before concluding why some particular constituencies invited high NOTA votes.