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The NOTA (none of the above) vote can make or mar the electoral fortunes of a candidate in an election where the victory margin is very thin. The Karnataka Assembly elections are a perfect example.
With 104 winning candidates, the BJP is short of nine seats for a simple majority of 113 seats in a House of 224. And the party can blame the NOTA vote, especially in five segments, where the Congress won with wafer-thin margins.
In Badami, where Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was up against BJP heavyweight B Sriramulu, the Congress leader won by only 1,696 votes. Here, the NOTA count stood at 2,007 votes.
Similarly, in Gadag constituency, where the Congress defeated BJP by 1,868 votes, there were 2,007 NOTA votes.
The margin of defeat for the BJP was less than 700 votes in three constituencies — Hirekerur (555), Kundagol (634) and Maski (213). In fact, NOTA outnumbered the margin of defeat in these constituencies: Maski recorded 2,049 NOTA votes, Kundagol 1,032, and Hirekerur 972.
The Congress defeated BJP with a margin of 1,483 votes in Yellapur and 1,989 votes in Sringeri. The margin of defeat for BJP was between 2,000 and 3,000 votes in Athani (2,331), Ballari (2,679), Vijayanagar (2,775) and Yemkanmardi (2,850). However, NOTA votes were not the deciding factor in these constituencies as they remained below the margin of defeat.
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