How NOTA bit the BJP in Madhya Pradesh

Bhopal, Dec 13: In the hard-fought Madhya Pradesh assembly elections, which the Congress went on to win eventually, NOTA had the fifth largest tally. As per the statistics available, NOTA crossed the victory margins in 22 constituencies in MP.

There were 5.4 lakh NOTA votes polled which made it 1.4 per cent of share. The BJP polled 41 per cent, the Congress 40.9 per cent. The BSP and the GGP followed with 5 and 1.8 per cent respectively.

The lowest margin of loss was at Gwalior South with a 121 margin. Here NOTA ended up getting 1,550 votes. This cost the BJP's Narayan Singh Kushwaha the election.

In Damoh, where the now former finance minister, Jayant Malaiya lost by 799 votes, NOTA polled 1,299 votes. Sharad Jain, MoS health who contested the Jabalpur seat list by just 578 votes. In this constituency, NOTA ended with 1,299 votes.

In Burhanpur, the then minister for women and child development Archana Chitnis lost the election by 5,120 votes. Here NOTA polled 5,700.

NOTA was not kind on the Congress either. In the Timarni seat, where NOTA polled 4,084 votes, Abhijeet Saha of the Congress lost the election by a margin of 2,213 votes. In Nagod constituency, Yadvendra Singh of the Congress lost by a thin margin of 1,234 votes, while 2,301 were NOTA votes.