Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, May 26: Uttara Kannada Lok Sabha constituency has registered 16,017 NOTA votes, the highest in the state. Even though Union minister Anantkumar Hegde made a thumping victory with a margin of 4,79,649 votes, the NOTA votes are 1.39 per cent of the total 11,53,480 votes registered in the constituency.

Even in 2014, Uttara Kannada registered 16,277 NOTA votes. However, across the state, when compared to 2014, there is a decrease in the number who opted for NOTA.

In 2014 around 2,57,881 had opted for NOTA but 2019 saw 7987 less with 2,49,894 votes.

Bidar registered the least number of NOTA votes. It secured 1,948 in 2019 and 2,817 in 2014 polls.

In the country, Bihar registered the maximum None of The Above (NOTA) votes of about 8 lakh, with the highest share of 5.04% reported from the Gopalganj constituency.

Political analyst and professor of political science at Karnatak University Dharwad Harish Ramaswamy tells TOI, "It is a sign that the feeling of negativity towards politics is decreasing among voters. Moreover, NOTA does not have any legal standing as such. Its number is very less and some voters might have opted for it by mistake too.”

Meanwhile, Raghavendra Kustagi a crusader for ‘right to reject’ candidates says sentiments of religion and nationality were provoked in 2019 elections. As the opposition who wanted to prove secularism criticized Hindutva, it might have led people to give BJP victory in the state and not many opting NOTA.