Noida: Mahesh Sharma's victory margin goes up, NOTA voters double

BJP leader Mahesh Sharma's victory margin in the Lok Sabha election from Gautam Buddh Nagar went up by over 57,000 votes from 2014, while NOTA voters almost doubled in the constituency, official poll data showed.

He won 8,30,812 votes, up from 5,99,702 in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, even as total votes cast this time stood at 13,92,952, up from 11,99,262 five years ago, according to data by the Election Commission.

Sharma defeated his nearest rival, BSP's Satveer Nagar by a margin of 3,37,391 votes. Nagar's candidature was also backed by the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal. He got 4,93,421 votes.

In 2014, Sharma's nearest rival was SP's Narendra Bhati, who had got 3,19,490 votes and their vote margin stood at 2,80,212, the data showed.

Sharma had garnered a vote share of 50 per cent among 24 candidates in 2014, while his vote share increased to 59.64 per cent this time among 13 candidates, according to the EC data.

At least 8,371 votes were cast under 'none of the above' (NOTA) option this year, 0.6 per cent of total votes polled, almost double from 3,836 in 2014 (0.32 per cent), the data showed.

According to the EC, 20 of the NOTA votes in Gautam Buddh Nagar were made through postal ballots.

The Gautam Buddh Nagar Lok Sabha seat comprises five assembly segments of Noida, Dadri, Jewar, Khurja and Sikandrabad, with a total electorate of 22.97 lakh.

Of the 8,371 NOTA votes, Noida polled the maximum of 3,315, followed by Dadri 1,724, Khurja 1,236, Jewar 1,067 and Sikandrabad 1,009, according to the district election office.