Telangana: NOTA natter missing as voters go decisive this time

HYDERABAD: Munugode's rebel streak of opting for NOTA (none of the above) was missing in this election as only 482 voters had chosen the option. With more than 93% voting, people were clear in their thought process and NOTA was least preferred.
Among the 119 assembly segments, Munugode had the fifth highest percentage of NOTA votes during the 2018 assembly elections.Approximately, 1.5% of voters had believed that no party or candidate deserved their votes.
Voting percentage data has shown that 3,086 Munugode voters chose NOTA in the 2018 election, a significant increase from the previous election in 2014 when 508 voters did so, making up for just 0.3% of all votes cast.
"In a close race, NOTA would have made all the difference, but TRS has clearly established a good lead after a few rounds. RS Praveen Kumar-led BSP could have made some difference, but it did not fare as well as it was expected to," an analyst said.
Compared to the 2014 elections, NOTA votes increased by 47% in the most recent 2018 assembly elections. In comparison to 1.52 lakh in the 2014 elections, a total of 2,24,709 voters chose NOTA option on the EVMs, rejecting all the candidates in their respective constituencies.
NOTA accounted for 1.1% of approximately 2.05 crore votes cast in the 2018 assembly elections. In fact, NOTA's vote share was greater than that of the CPI and M Kodandaram-led Telangana Jana Samithi combine. Both parties were part of the four-party People's Front led by Congress.
It's interesting to note that Munugode is one of the few assembly constituencies where BJP candidate received large number of votes in 2018 elections. Party's G Manohar Reddy received over 12,000 votes then.