More NOTA than victory margin: 10 Tamil Nadu seats show surprising voter trend; Tiruppattur seat decided by 1 vote

CHENNAI: The NOTA (none of the above) option polled 747 votes in Tirupattur where DMK minister K R Periyakaruppan lost by one vote to TVK's Seenivasa Sethupathy. In nine other constituencies too, NOTA polled more votes than the victory margins. TVK won four of the seats, AIADMK three, DMK two and BJP. Overall, NOTA polled 1,99,811 votes (0.41%) in 2026, a dip from 3,45,487 (0.75%) votes in 2021. NOTA polled 5,61,174 votes (1.3%) when it was introduced in 2016. Experts said the electoral reform lost its significance within a decade. "NOTA at its peak polled 7,000 to 8,000 votes in the first election. In this election, the highest NOTA got was 2,116 votes in Kavundampalayam. In a three-way contest, NOTA votes have come down," said professor Ramu Manivannan, former head of the department of politics and political administration, University of Madras. "Without any power for recall or referendum or review of candidates, NOTA has become a kind of symbolic gesture. It's a half-hearted electoral reform, and the political system is unwilling to review it," he added. P Joseph Victor Raj, coordinator, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, National Election Watch, said the youth found an alternative with the entry of TVK, which brought down the number of dissent votes in 2026. Besides Tiruppatur, Paramathy Velur, Thirukoyilur, Kulithalai, Polur, Kallakurichi, Kumbakonam, Udhagamandalam, Veppanahalli and Kanyakumari had victory margins lower than the NOTA votes. In 2021, victory margins were lower than NOTA votes in 13 constituencies.