In Indore LS Seat, Runner NOTA gets Record Votes, ‘Loses’ to BJP

Bhopal: In an unprecedented development, BJP has retained Indore Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh by ‘defeating’ its ‘nearest rival’ NOTA, or none of the above, by a record margin of 10,08,077 votes.

BJP candidate Shankar Lalwani who is seeking re-election in the constituency won a record 12,26,751 votes while NOTA has emerged as the runner by getting a record 2,18,674 votes, according to the Election Commission (EC) data.

The record votes for NOTA follow an appeal by Congress to the electorates to vote for NOTA after its candidate Akshay Kant Bam withdrew his nomination at the last moment denying an opportunity for the party to field an alternative candidate in the seat.

Mr Bam later joined the BJP.

The EC website has however mentioned that Mr. Lalwani won the polls by defeating 13 candidates who fought elections as independents and nominees of some political parties, while simply informing that NOTA has bagged 2,18,674 votes.

According to the EC data, Mr Lalwani has received 78.99 percent of the votes polled compared to NOTA’s 13.62 percent.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Sanjay Solanki polled 49,277 votes, the third highest votes (3.29 percent).

If the number of votes secured by NOTA is taken into account, it is the runner.

“Technically, ‘NOTA’ is not a candidate. Hence, it cannot be termed that NOTA lost to the winner in a seat”, a poll officer said here.

Indore LS seat, significantly, has broken the previous NOTA record of Gopalganj in Bihar.

In the 2019 elections, the Gopalganj LS seat recorded the maximum NOTA votes at 51,660, about five percent of the total votes polled in the constituency.