NOTA runner-up in 2 Maharashtra seats; in Haryana, it decides results in 6

www.mangaloretoday.com

New Delhi, OCtober 25, 2019: In their poll-preparedness for the Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections, political parties would have planned strategies to overcome any challenge that their rival may put before them, but it is unlikely that any party charted out strategies specifically to prevent NOTA from playing spoilsport by becoming the deciding factor between victory and defeat, or between being an honourable runner up and a humiliated distant third.

In these assembly elections, the NOTA has emerged as the runner-up in at least two assembly seats in Maharashtra and has played a key role in the results of at least six assembly seats in Haryana. These are assembly seats where the victory margin was either very narrow or significantly wide.

In Maharashtra, NOTA emerged as the runner-up in Latur (rural) and Palus-Kadegaon assembly seats.

In Latur (rural), Congress candidate and son of former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Dhiraj Vilasrao Deshmukh, won the assembly seat by securing 1.33 lakh votes (67.59 per cent of total votes). The second highest votes were secured by NOTA (27,287 votes), while Shiv Sena, which was Congress’s main rival in this seat, was a distant third, securing only 13,335 votes.

A similar situation was seen in Palus-Kadegaon assembly seat. Here, too the contest was primarily between the Congress and the Shiv Sena.

Congress candidate Kadam Vishwajeet Patangrao won a decisive mandate by securing 1.71 lakh votes (i.e. 83.04 per cent of total votes). In comparison, the Shiv Sena was able to secure just 8,976 votes while NOTA got 20,631 votes (nearly 10 per cent of total votes).

Besides these two seats, the importance of NOTA was also seen in Akkalkuwa assembly seat where KC Padavi of the Congress defeated Shiv Sena’s Aamshya Fulji by 2,096 votes, while NOTA secured 4,856 votes in its favour.

While Latur (rural) and Palus-Kadegaon assembly seats saw a one-sided contest with the winner securing more than 65 per cent votes, in Haryana, there were six seats where the contest was so close that NOTA became one of the deciding factors between victory and defeat.

In Haryana’s Thanesar assembly seat, BJP’s Subhash Sudha defeated Congress’s Ashok Kumar Arora in a close contest. The victory margin was just 842 votes. But NOTA alone secured 951 votes in this seat.

Similarly, in Sirsa, Gopal Kanda of the Haryana Lokhit Party was able to manage a narrow victory by defeating Independent candidate Gokul Setia by 602 votes. However, in this seat, NOTA secured 579 votes.

In Ratia, BJP’s Lakshman Napa defeated Congress’s Jarnail Singh by 1,216 votes. Here, 1,086 people voted for NOTA.

In Badkhal, BJP’s Seema Trikha defeated Congress leader Vijay Pratap Singh by 2,545 votes. In this seat, 2,274 people voted for NOTA. Besides this, non-serious candidates managed to get 918 votes and the two became a deciding factor in the final result.

In Punahana, Congress candidate Mohammad Ilyas defeated Independent candidate Rahish Khan by 816 votes. Here, NOTA got 611 votes.

In Kaithal, senior Congress leader and two-time MLA from Kaithal, Randeep Singh Surjewala lost the assembly election to BJP’s Leela Ram by a margin of 1,246 votes. In this seat, NOTA secured 561 while non-serious Independents got around 1,800 votes. There were a total of 19 candidates in this seat.

These results aside, another indicator of NOTA’s significance in elections can be understood from the fact that NOTA has secured more votes than the Aam Aadmi Party in both Haryana and Maharahstra. In Haryana, AAP secured 0.48 per cent while NOTA’s share was 0.52 per cent. Similarly in Maharashtra, AAP secured 0.11 per cent votes, while NOTA got 1.37 per cent.

This clearly reiterates the significance of NOTA and every vote polled in an election. The candidates who lost in narrow contests would, however, have some respite as opposed to some candidates in past elections elsewhere in the country who lost by just one vote.

AR Krishnamurthy of the Janata Dal (Secular) in 2004 Karnataka assembly election and BJP’s Kalyan Singh Chouhan in 2008 Rajasthan assembly election lost by just one vote.

Last year, in the Mizoram assembly election, Lalchhandama Ralte of the Mizoram National Front (MNF) defeated sitting Congress MLA RL Pianmawia by just three votes in Tuivawl (ST) seat.

A defeat is a defeat, but defeat by one vote or a single-digit vote is far more pinching than others. Ain’t it?