When NOTA becomes the deciding factor

Kolkata: CPM's Sujit Chakraborty won from Barjora in Bankura defeating actor Sohom Chakrabarty by a margin of only 616 votes. Deboshree Roy defeated CPM veteran Kanti Ganguly from Raidighi in South 24-Parganas by 1229 votes. They couldn't have made it without the NOTA (None of the Above) votes that in a way became the deciding factor in these constituencies.Here, NOTA votes were higher than the victory margin. In Barjora, the votes polled in favour of NOTA was 4235, and in case of Raidighi it was 1710.
NOTA votes are higher than the victory margin in as many as 21 constituencies. If this is a trend, it displays the underlying facts over vote transfers. "There has been an alliance between our party and the Left. The top leaders have decided it. But how could I cast my vote for a party that has been our enemy since years? Rather, I decided to cast my vote in favour of NOTA," an assistant secretary of Congress told TOI on condition of anonymity.
If this gave advantage to Trinamool, there are instances where faction feuds within Trinamool triggered a rise in NOTA votes. Among these 21 constituencies, six went to Left and four with Congress.
Chhatna in Bankura recorded the highest NOTA polling - 7709 - where RSP candidate Dhirendranath Layel defeated Trinamool candidate Subhashis Batabyal by a margin of 2417 votes.
Take the example of Kalchini where Trinamool candidate Wilson Champamari won by a margin of 1511 when the number of NOTA votes was 4524. Indranil Sen of the ruling party won from Chandernagore by a margin of only 2114 votes when the NOTA figure was as high as 3853. This is also true in case of Tamluk where Nirbed Roy lost to Ashok Dinda of CPM by a margin of 520 votes. But, 2394 NOTA votes were polled here.
Records show a total of 8.30 lakh people in Bengal opted for NOTA. This is more than the four other states - Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry - that went to the polls this year.
When asked about it, Psephologist Biswanath Chakraborty said, "There are people from both Congress and Left who couldn't give their votes to the parties they considered to be their main rival for so many years. This resulted in the rise in the NOTA percentage. Since NOTA is a relatively new thing, people were not aware of it in the last two elections. I believe that with time this number will increase. The young generation who are politically disillusioned and didn't want to waste their votes chose NOTA as the best alternative."