PATNA: A majority of voters including two former MLAs of JD(U) from Lalganj assembly segment in Vaishali district, Vijay Kumar alias Munna Shukla and his wife Annu, pressed the button of NOTA on May 6 in Hajipur Lok Sabha constituency. The Shukla-couple, after pressing the NOTA button, appealed to the voters of their cast, in particular, to press NOTA in order to save electoral existence.
Besides them, a majority of voters belonging to different castes said that they pressed the NOTA as none of the candidates from those contesting were "Worth -voting". Janamejay Choudhary, associated with a social organisation, said that he along with hundreds of others, known and associated with his organisation, pressed the NOTA button registering their dislikes to all 22 candidates in fray from Hajipur Lok Sabha constituency. Sources from Saran, Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur and Madhubani also informed that majority of voters resorted to NOTA on May 6.
A reliable poll-watcher Nirmal Kumar, who is doing a study on "NOTA-Proving a boon or bane in electoral democracy in Bihar", said that the NOTA option in the 2019 general elections has started gaining choices at an alarming pace. "It goes without saying from last fifth elections of 2019 that NOTA will prove a spoilsport to many heavyweight candidates, who have never been bothering to visit their constituencies after being elected. The state has witnessed around 15 to 20 per cent rise in use of NOTA option compared to 2014 LS elections", he said.
He said exact percentage would be cleared after counting on May 23 but trends on NOTA are emerging worrisome to almost all political parties in Bihar.