Four winners have victory margins lower than NOTA

HUBBALLI: If the demand for banning all candidates of a constituency where the number of None Of the Above (NOTA) votes is higher than the winning margin had been accepted by the election commission (EC), there would have been re-election in four assembly segments of Karnataka. For now, the four elected MLAs in such constituencies are safe.
All the four constituencies - Badami, Kundgol, Maski and Aland - fall in North Karnataka region. Siddaramaiah defeated BJP candidate Sreeramulu by 1,696 votes in Badami, where 2,007 people opted for NOTA. Sitting MLA CS Shivalli retained his Kundgol segment by a margin of 634 votes while 1,032 people chose NOTA. In Maski, the number of NOTA votes (2,049) is 10 times higher than the winning margin of 203 votes between Congress' Pratapgouda Patil (winner) and BJP's Basanagowda Turvihal. In Aland, NOTA votes (1,445) are double the margin of 697 votes between BJP's Subhash Guttedar (winner) and Congress' BR Patil.

Raghavendra Kustagi, convener, Jan Sangram Parishat (JSP), who has been involved in the 'Right to Reject' campaign since 1999, said re-election in a constituency where the margin was lower than NOTA votes was demanded in 2013 at a national conference on 'Electoral Reforms and Democratization of Political Process' in Bengaluru. "We had demanded NOTA option in EVMs. The EC accepted the demand after a Supreme Court order but denied conduct of re-election if NOTA votes are more than the victory margin," he added.