Delhi Chief Minister and AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal addresses during the launch of the mission Make India No. 1, at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022. (Express photo by Amit Mehra)THE NOTA (None of the Above) option on the EVM machine stood third across 115 of the 182 seats in Gujarat and 12 of the 68 seats in Himachal Pradesh in the 2017 polls. The trend becomes significant in view of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s attempts to make inroads in both the states, which have traditionally seen a bipolar contest.
About 5.51 lakh voters, or 1.84%, out of the 3 crore voters in Gujarat, chose NOTA. In Himachal, 34,232 voters, or 0.90%, of the 37.84 lakh voters did so.
In Gujarat, NOTA’s overall vote share was third-highest (1.84 %), after the BJP (49.05%) and the Congress (41.44%). The Independents, 3 of whom won out of the 794 who contested, were the only group that scored higher than the NOTA group.
In the Himachal polls that year, NOTA’s vote share was the fourth highest (0.90%), after the BJP (48.79%), Congress (41.68%) and CPI(M) (1.47%).