NOTA stands third in Mysuru Lok Sabha constituency!

Mysuru, NT Bureau:The NOTA (none of the above) option which was introduced by Election Commission of India (ECI) on the directions of Supreme Court to discourage political parties from fielding tainted candidates, has sprung a surprise in Mysuru Kodagu constituency by securing the third highest votes.

NOTA had secured the fifth highest number of votes in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls. As many as 4490 voters preferred the NOTA option on the EVMs.

The BJP candidate Yaduveer Krishnadutta Chamaraja Wadiyar who was elected, secured 7, 95, 503 votes while his rival M Lakshman of Congress polled 6, 56, 241 votes. In the 2014 polls, NOTA polled 8,914 votes and was ranked fifth.

Then BJP candidate Pratap Simha had defeated Congress candidate Adagur H Vishwanath by 31,608 votes. In the 2019 polls in MysuruKodagu, NOTA secured 5,346 votes. Pratap Simha had then trounced C H Vijayashankar by 6,88,974 votes.

Speaking to News Trail, Karnataka State Open University political science professor Sudhakara Hosahalli said that even though the ECI has introduced the NOTA option, it will not have serious implications.

Even if NOTA gets the highest votes, there is a provision for the ECI to declare the candidate who has secured the second highest number of votes after NOTA as winner, he said.