Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Even as Congress party is urging voters in Indore parliamentary constituency to press NOTA (None of The Above) button to express resentment against party candidate Akshay Bam who withdrew his nomination and joined BJP, it would be interesting to know the NOTA numbers this time. In 2019 general election, 3.4 lakh people had opted for NOTA.
With Congress campaigning for NOTA in Indore, NOTA voters may script a new record in Madhya Pradesh this time.
Bam withdrew from the contest at the last minute, leaving Congress shocked and without any candidate from Indore. Even veteran BJP leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumita Mahajan expressed displeasure at the development.
"If some of our people played a part in it, it was wrong. And if Bam took the decision on his own, it was equally wrong," she had said in a recent interview. Congress party has decided not to support any candidate in the fray. Instead, it has urged voters to go for NOTA.
In 2019 election, total NOTA votes were 3,40,928, which was 0.9 per cent of the total votes polled. NOTA had bagged the fourth highest number of votes after BJP, Congress and BSP in the state. In 2014 poll, NOTA votes were 3.91 lakh, which was 1.32 per cent of the total.
Jhabua seat
In 2019, the highest number of NOTA votes were polled in Jhabua Parliamentary constituency, where 35,431 voters made it clear that they did not want any of the candidates to represent them.
