GHMC polls: Did invalid votes swing closely fought wards?

An analysis of votes polled across Greater Hyderabad shows that around 2.31 per cent of all votes polled across the 150 GHMC wards were invalid.

Women lined up to cast their vote for the GHMC election at Panja Sheela High School in Moosapet on Tuesday | S Senbagapandiyan

HYDERABAD: Did a string of invalid votes seal the deal against some candidates in the recent GHMC elections? A closer look at the large number of invalid paper ballot votes in certain wards gives an indication that this could have been the case. Take the curious case of Gajularamaram ward where the difference in number of votes between the TRS candidate who won and the BJP candidate who lost was 437 votes. However, according to the data provided by the State Election Commission, as many as 1,110 votes polled in the ward were invalid.

An analysis of votes polled across Greater Hyderabad shows that around 2.31 per cent of all votes polled across the 150 GHMC wards were invalid. In terms of numbers, 79,735 votes out of the total 34,50,331 votes polled were invalid, as the stamp on the ballot paper was not up to the standards set by the State Election Commission. This figure is inclusive of the postal ballots.

While the number of invalid votes may seem insignificant compared to the total number of votes polled, in certain wards, the numbers of invalid votes were above 1,000, which contributed about 3-4 per cent of the total votes polled there. In Amberpet division, of the total 27,402 votes polled, 1,133 were invalid. In Attapur, 1,031 votes out of 26,549 votes were invalid; in Mylardevpally, 1,451 votes were invalid out of 35,815 were invalid; in Suleman Nagar, 1,080 votes out of 21,701 were invalid.

These invalid votes, if polled properly, might have turned around the fate of some candidates in wards where the margin of victory was close. For instance, in Mylardevpally, the gap between the elected BJP candidate and the runner-up TRS candidate was 1,948 votes, whereas the number of invalid votes were 1,451.

NOTA votes less than 0.8%
Only 28,663 voters chose the NOTA option, which is just 0.8 per cent of the 34.5 lakh votes polled. On an average, about 200-300 NOTA votes were cast in all wards. In Banjara Hills, the number of NOTA votes were 805, followed by Kondapur with 675 and Seethphalmandi with 628.

Total votes 34,50,331

Invalid votes79,735

Percentage of invalid votes 2.31%

Wards with 1K invalid votes

Amberpet 1,133

Attapur 1,031

Mylardevpally 1,451

Suleman Nagar 1,080

Goshamahal 1,109

Shah Ali Banda 1,011

Gajularamaram 1,110

Wards with close margins, 1k invalid votes