In 17 Guj LS seats, NOTA comes third after BJP, Cong

While the Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat was a direct contest between the ruling BJP and the Congress, NOTA (none of the above) emerged third on seventeen seats, gaining more votaries than the Bahujan Samaj Party which had contested all 26 seats in the state.

As per Election Commission data, around 1.38 per cent voters opted for NOTA, which is more than the 0.86 per cent vote share the BSP managed.

NOTA is an option given by the Election Commission of India in case the elector does not prefer any candidate in the fray.

The BJP, which won all the 26 seats, received 62.21 per cent of the total votes cast, while the Congress came second with 32.11 per cent.

The state saw all-time high voting of 64.11 per cent in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Among the seats where NOTA was third choice after the BJP and Congress were Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad (West), Amreli, Anand, Bardoli, Bhavnagar, Chhota Udepur, Dahod, Kutchh, Rajkot, Kheda, Mehsana, Panchmahal, Patan, etc.

BJP chief Amit Shah contested from Gandhinagar and received 8.94 lakh votes.

NOTA polled 14,719 votes in Ahmedabad (West), which was won by the BJP's Kirit Solanki by a margin of 3.21 lakh votes.

The BSP's Tribhovandas Vaghela received 10,028 votes and came fourth, behind NOTA, in the Amedabad West seat.

Similarly, in Amreli, 17,567 voters opted for NOTA, which was more than the 9,691 votes that the BSP's Ravji Chauhan got.

In Anand, where BJP's Mitesh Patel defeated Congress candidate and former Union minister Bharat Solanki by a margin of 1.97 lakh votes, NOTA polled 18,392 votes, standing third.

NOTA got 22,914 votes on Bardoli seat where Bharatiya Tribal Party's candidate Uttam Vasava came fourth with 11,781 votes.

In Chhota Udepur seat, NOTA got 32,868 votes, with the BSP's Furkanbhai Rathva coming fourth with 14,964 votes.

On seats where NOTA came third, the BSP, Communist Party of India or Nationalist Congress Party candidates were pushed to the fourth spot.

In Panchmahal seat, for example, 20,133 voters opted for NOTA, while NCP's Virendra Patel came a distant fourth with 9,826 votes.

In Patan, where 14,327 NOTA votes were cast, the NCP's Kirit Chaudhari was pushed to a distant fourth with 9,215 votes.

In Surat seat, where BJP candidate Darshana Jardosh won by a margin of 5.48 lakh votes, 10,532 votes were cast as NOTA,, higher than the 5,735 votes polled by the CPI's Vijay Shemare.