In one-man Indore fight, Nota polls 2.2 lakh votes

INDORE/BHOPAL: No-choice turned out to be Indore’s second choice in a one-sided fight. Nota polled a record 2.18 lakh votes in MP’s commercial capital in an where a last-minute switch to BJP by Congress candidate left the saffron camp without a challenger.
Prior to this, the highest Nota count in country was 51,660 votes in Bihar’s Gopalganj in 2019, followed by Bihar’s West Champaran (45,699) and Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu (46,559) in 2014.In Indore, Nota accounted for 14% of all votes cast, turning out to be a bigger talking point than sitting MP Shankar Lalwani’s victory by 11.7 lakh votes.
After the ‘betrayal’ by its candidate left Congress unrepresented in Indore for the first time ever, opposition canvassed for Nota as an alternative to BJP. Nota became the talk of the town, and senior BJP functionaries started slamming Congress for promoting it. BJP even ran a counter-campaign, urging Indore voters not to “waste their vote”.
Former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said she was getting calls from prominent people of the city who wanted to vote Nota. “This should not have happened (Cong candidate’s withdrawal and joining BJP). There was no need for this as BJP’s victory in Indore was a foregone conclusion,” Mahajan said.
The no-choice campaign picked up pace and soon Indore turned into a BJP vs Nota battle. By pressing Nota over 2 lakh times, the land of Ahilya Bai has sent a message. Interestingly, Nota saw a sharp rise elsewhere in the state too. Though BJP swept all 29 seats, it was Nota that had the maximum growth in vote share.
In 2019 LS polls, Nota share was only 0.6% (3.4 lakh votes). This time, it shot up to 1.4% (5.3 lakh). Three constituencies saw Nota votes grow by more than 100% over 2019 — Balaghat by 171%, Rewa by 139% and Morena by 134%.