Karnataka: AAP gets lesser vote count than NOTA

Bangalore, May 18: Aam Aadmi Party that made its political debut in

aiming big has performed very dismally with its vote count in the state lesser than

and votes secured lesser than its membership base in the city.

AAP's vote count in the state is 2,54,501, which is lesser compared to vote count obtained by NOTA-- 2,57,873.

Similarly, AAP has a membership base of over one lakh people in Bangalore, according to party sources.

But the sum of votes obtained by the party candidates from the city - namely three Parliamentary constituencies in Bangalore North, South and Central is only 89,379 votes.

Babu Mathew, trade union activist and former Registrar of National Law School of India University, Bangalore, former Infosys CFO V Balakrishnan and child rights activist Nina P Nayak were AAP candidates from Bangalore North, Central and South.

Making its political foray, AAP had announced its decision to contest all 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka. The party had also organised Rs 20,000-per person fund-raising dinner during Arvind Kejriwal's three day visit to the city that yielded Rs 50 lakh.

Balakrishnan came a distant third in Bangalore Central with 39,869 votes.

Conceding defeat Balakrishnan told PTI "We had run an honest campaign, its peoples' decision and they have voted for stability at the Centre."

"Looking at this result, I feel it is not just Modi wave, its Modi tsunami. It is anti-Congress wave and BJP has been able to market brand Modi very well," he stated, promising to strengthen the party for upcoming Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) civic body elections.

While Mathew garnered 28,107 votes, Nina Nayak got 21,403 votes .

PTI