Poll-weary Mumbai gives its vote to NOTA
With Maharashtra voting the BJP-Shiv Sena combine to power again in the 2019 assembly elections, another big gainer has emerged in the city of Mumbai — NOTA.
Published: 26th October 2019 07:30 AM | Last Updated: 26th October 2019 07:30 AM | A+A A-
Counting of votes in progress in Mumbai on Thursday; NOTA’s vote share in the city rose from 1.28% in 2014 to 3.85 in 2019 | PTI
NEW DELHI: With Maharashtra voting the BJP-Shiv Sena combine to power again in the 2019 assembly elections, another big gainer has emerged in the city of Mumbai — NOTA.
Voters in Mumbai’s 34 Assembly segments chose the ‘None of The Above’ (NOTA) option much more than they did in the last assembly polls. While in 2014, the average vote share of NOTA in Mumbai was 1.28 per cent, it rose to 3.85 per cent in 2019.
“It is one of the ways that the people have showed dissent towards the ruling BJP in the elections. Mumbai has been a BJP-Sena stronghold and by choosing NOTA, the voters wanted to send out a message. Most urban centres in the state have registered growth in the vote share for NOTA,” director of Voter Mood Research (VMR) Jai Mrug said.
READ| In a first, NOTA comes second in Latur rural
Mumbai has a total of 34 assembly segments. The highest vote share for NOTA was seen in Jogeshwari East constituency, where the option got 8.08 per cent of the total votes polled. The corresponding figure for the constituency in 2014 was 1.2 per cent. Constituencies like Malabar Hill and Charkop also registered a significant rise in the vote share of NOTA.
While in Malabar Hill segment, the vote percentage for NOTA went up from 0.8 per cent in 2014 to 4.37 per cent in 2019, the number rose from 0.8 per cent in 2014 to 3.23 per cent in Charkop constituency.
The highest number of votes that NOTA garnered in Maharashtra was in Latur Rural, where the option came in second after Dhiraj Deshmukh of the Congress, the son of former Maharashtra chief minister late Vilasrao Deshmukh. In this constituency, NOTA garnered more votes than the Shiv Sena, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena combined.
