NEW DELHI: Disapproving the candidate fielded by all the political parties, over 57,000 people in the city chose the NOTA (None of The Above) category while exercising their franchise in the MCD elections.
The figure of 57,545 was 0.73 % of the total votes polled in the election.
Notably, during the last MCD polls in 2017, as many as 49,235 votes were under the NOTA category which means this year there has been a rise of 8,310 NOTA votes, indicating a sense of disbelief among some people for any political party.
In northwest Delhi’s Bawana, a whole village, angered by the negligence of the government towards their grievances, boycotted the elections on December 4. “Due to the lack of a suitable cremation ground in our village, we are unable to carry out the last rites of our deceased. This becomes impossible during rain as the cremation ground is unprotected by a roof,” a local voter from Katewara village said.
Interestingly, the NOTA’s vote share was greater than 10 political parties including NCP (0.2%), CPI-M (0.02%), CPI (0.01%), AIMIM (0.62%), JD-U (0.16%), RLD (0.09%), Forward Bloc (0.02%), Samajwadi Party (0.01%), LJSP (0%) and IUML (0%). In these elections, the NOTA was more powerful as it was considered as a “fictional electoral candidate”.