Varanasi: NOTA vote doubles in 2019 election

VARANASI: Not only the victory margin of Prime Minister Narendra Modi increased in the 2019 parliamentary poll but the number of NOTA voters also witnessed a rise in Varanasi constituency. In 2019 election the number of NOTA votes almost doubled from 2,051 to 4,037 in Varanasi constituency in comparison to 2014 poll.
According to the Election Commission of India, the percentage of NOTA votes in Varanasi was 0.38 of the total 10,60,476 votes.A total of 1,08,209 voters opted for NOTA in the 12 Lok Sabha seats of eastern UP including Varanasi, Robertsganj, Mirzapur, Macchlishahar, Chandauli, Ballia, Bhadohi, Azamgarh, Lalganj, Ghazipur, Ghosi and Jaunpur. Among these 12 seats Robertsganj topped with 21,118 NOTA votes followed by Mirzapur (15,353) and Chandauli (11,218).
Robertsganj recorded 2.14% NOTA votes, while Mirzapur and Chandauli recorded 1.38% and 1.03% NOTA votes respectively. They were followed by others seats including Machhlishar (10,830), Ballia (9,615), Bhadohi (9,087), Azamgarh (7,255), Ghazipur (6,871), Ghosi (5,324), Lalganj (5,060) and Jaunpur (2,441).
The trend shows that people are losing faith in political parties, said a social activist Rahul Singh of Kranti Foundation, who campaigned for NOTA during the electioneering. “We have been urging the political parties to come under the purview of RTI Act to maintain transparency,” he said adding that the ruling party should come forward to set an example.
The Varanasi seat was won by PM Narendra Modi, who defeated his nearest rival Shalini Yadav of the SP by a margin of over 4.79 lakh votes. Modi got 6,74,664 votes, while Shalini got 1,95,159 votes. The Robertsganj seat went to Pakaruri Lal Kol of Apna Dal (S), who defeated SP’s Bhai Lal Kol by a margin of 54,336 votes. Pakauri got 4,47, 914 votes, while Bhai Lal got 3,93,578 votes.
Anupriya Patel of AD (s) retained Mirzapur seat by defeating her rival SP’s Ramchandra Nishad by a margin of over 2.32 lakh votes. She got 5,91,564 votes, while Nishad got 3,59,556 votes. Machhlishahar recorded the lowest victory margin of only 181 votes. Here, BP Saroj (4,88,397) of BJP defeated BSP’s T Ram (4,88,216). The Lalganj seat went to BSP’s Sangeeta Azad who defeated BJP’s Neelam Sonkar by a margin of over 1.61 lakh votes. Sangeeta got 5,18,820 votes while Neelam got 3,57,223 votes.
BJP’s KP Singh lost Jaunpur seat to BSP’s Shyam Singh Yadav with a margin of 80,936 votes. Yadav got 5,21,128 votes, while Singh got 4,40,192 votes. BJP also lost Ghosi seat, where BSP’s Atul Rai defeated Hariarayan Rajbhar by a margin of over 1.22 lakh votes. Rai got 5,73,829 votes, while Rajbhar got 4,51,261 votes.
BJP suffered a debacle in Ghazipur where Union minister Manoj Sinha lost to BSP’s Afzal Ansari, brother of jailed don turned politician Mukhtar Ansari. Ansari got 5,66,082 votes while Sinha got 4,46,690 votes. BJP state president Mahendra Nath Pandey retained Chandauli seat by defeating SP’s Sanjay Singh Chauhan by a margin of 13,959 votes. Pandey got 5,10,733 votes while Chauhan got 4,96,774 votes.
BJP’s Ramesh Chand defeated BSP’s Rangnath Mishra at Bhadohi seat by a margin of 43,615 votes. Ramesh got 5,10,029 votes, while Rangnath got 4,66,414 votes. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav won Azamgarh seat by defeating BJPs Dinesh Lal Yadav Nirahua by a margin of over 2.59 lakh votes. Akhilesh got 6,21,578 votes, while Nirahua got 3,61,704 votes. Virendra Singh of BJP won Balia seat by defeating SP’s Sanatan Pandey by a margin of 15,419 votes. Singh got 4,69,114 votes, while Pandey got 4,53,595 votes.