Mumbai Lok Sabha Election Results 2024: NOTA Turns Out To Be 3rd Favourite For Mumbaikars

Mumbai: Amid a neck to neck fight between the candidates of both the major alliances in the six constituencies, Mumbaikars did not find a third option to poll their vote in the Lok Sabha elections. In the absence of a third option, NOTA turned out to be the third-largest earner with over 75 thousand votes from the city.

Although the 2024 Lok Sabha election was an open fight between the National Democratic Alliance and the INDI alliance, Maharashtra had turned into a battleground for Sena vs Sena in most of the constituencies. In Mumbai, it was a tough fight between the candidates of both the alliances on all the seats and none of the constituencies allowed a third candidate to reach anywhere close to the major candidates. The voters, who failed to find the third option, had to rely on None Of The Above (NOTA) and the extent of their disappointment was visible in the votes polled in for NOTA.

The highest number of votes polled in for NOTA were recorded in the Mumbai North West constituency. In a close fight between Shiv Sena’s Ravindra Waikar and Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Amol Kirtikar, where the former won by mere 48 votes. While both the candidates recorded over 4.5 lakh votes, the third highest candidate Parmeshwar Ranshur from Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi garnered only 10 thousand votes. Whereas, NOTA turned out as the third choice for voters with 15,161 votes.

In Mumbai North, which saw the highest lead in the city by union minister Piyush Goyal, NOTA was again the third highest earner with 13,346 votes. While Goyal received over 6.80 lakh votes and his rival Bhushan Patil from Indian National Congress received over 3.22 lakh votes, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi candidate Sonal Gondane received mere 6,052 votes.

In Mumbai North Central constituency, where Indian National Congress’ Varsha Gaikwad defeated Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ujjawal Nikam after a tough competition of both the candidates receiving over 4 lakh votes, VBA’s Santosh Ambulge received 8288 votes. NOTA, on the other hand, received 9,749 votes. Similarly in Mumbai South, where Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Arvind Sawant received 3.95 lakh votes and defeated Shiv Sena’s Yamini Jadhav by a lead of over 52 thousand votes, VBA’s Afzal Dawoodani received only 5,612 votes. However, NOTA received 13,411 votes, more than two times the VBA candidate.

The VBA candidates from Mumbai South Central and Mumbai North East constituencies fared slightly better than NOTA. Abdul Hasan Khan from South Central received 23,867 votes against 13,423 votes for NOTA, North East’s Daulat Khan received 14,657 votes against 10,173 votes polled in for NOTA.