The two Lok Sabha seats from where Narendra Modi contested and emerged victorious with record margin, a closer look at the results on these two seats reveals interesting facts about the vote share going to the newly introduced ‘None of the above’ (NOTA) option.
NOTA use by the voters in Vadodara was over 10 times more than what was seen in Varanasi.
At Vadodara, where Modi registered victory with record-breaking margin, of over 5.70 lakh votes, 18,053 votes were cast for NOTA. Total voting was 11,62,168 votes in the Vadodara constituency and Modi secured 8,45,464 votes at Vadodara.
While on the other hand for Varanasi seat, the data shared by the Election Commission till 6 pm showed 1793 votes were cast for NOTA. Out of the total 10,28,763 votes cast in Varanasi, Modi secured over 5.05 lakh votes, showing a lead of over 3.28 lakh votes.
Interestingly, for the state as a whole, Gujarat registered 1.8 per cent vote share to NOTA, while in Uttar Pradesh the same was 0.7 per cent of the total vote share. Nationally, vote share to NOTA was 1.1 per cent.
In Vadodara voters voted among eight candidates from 8 parties, while in Varanasi votes were distributed among 42 candidates of 22 parties and 20 independent candidates.