Dooru, D H Pora, Khansahib, Chenani on top of list
‘Scratch vote’ much ahead than candidates of many parties
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 9: More than 870 candidates contested first ever elections to the Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir but still over 82,000 people opted for the None of the Above (NOTA), an option on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) that allows voters to indicate disapproval of all contesting candidates.
Click Here To Join Daily Excelsior on WhatsApp And Get Latest News
The NOTA also known as “against all” or a “scratch” vote is an option designed to allow the voters to indicate disapproval of the candidates in the voting system. This option was first used in the Assembly elections in five States in 2013 and thereafter the same was extended to whole of India and since then this option is provided in Assembly as well as Parliamentary elections.
The first ever elections to Legislative Assembly of J&K UT were held in three phases with 24 constituencies voting in the first phase, followed by 26 in the second and 40 in the third phase. A total of 873 candidates contested for the opportunity to represent their communities in the 90-member Legislative Assembly.
Apart from the platforms of national and regional political parties large number of candidates also tried their luck as Independent candidates. There was hardly any constituency where several independent candidates were not in fray. Despite this, more than 82,000 people still opted for NOTA option by rejecting all the contesting candidates.
The NOTA was opted by the people in all 90 Assembly constituencies with Dooru segment in Anantnag district witnessing maximum number of votes in favour of NOTA (2662) followed by D H Pora constituency (2390) in Kulgam district. Similarly, Khansahib constituency in Budgam district recorded third highest NOTA votes (2364) followed by Chenani constituency (1855) in Udhampur district.
As per the analysis of the results announced by the Election Commission of India, in large number of Assembly segments several contesting candidates including those of political parties like People’s Democratic Party (PDP), J&K National Panthers Party (JKNPP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Sainik Samaj Party, Shiv Sena, Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP), Jammu & Kashmir Awami National Conference (JKANC), Samajwadi Party and Independents failed to receive votes even equivalent to that of NOTA thereby breaking their myth of being “leaders of the masses”. The votes received by such candidates clearly established that they don’t enjoy the public support at all but still they jumped the fray for the reasons best known to them.
In Anantnag constituency, six out of 13 contesting candidates secured far less than the votes recorded by NOTA, which was opted by merely 640 voters. Likewise, in Bandipora segment, a total of 19 candidates were in fray and out of them four secured far less than the votes recorded by NOTA (501).
Similarly, for Baramulla Assembly constituency, 25 candidates tried their luck and 12 of them failed to secure votes equivalent to that recorded by NOTA (561). For Gulmarg Assembly constituency, 13 candidates were in fray and nine of them secured votes far less than NOTA (1494).
Same situation was also witnessed in several constituencies of Jammu division and Udhampur West is one such segment where out of total 12 contesting candidates, nine secured votes less than NOTA (1290). Likewise, in Ramnagar constituency out of 7 contesting candidates four secured votes far less than NOTA (1167).
Similarly, in Jammu West 12 candidates tried their luck to become Member of Legislative Assembly but eight of them failed to get votes equivalent to that of NOTA (530) while as in Bahu Assembly segment eight out of 12 candidates received votes far less than NOTA (460).
It is pertinent to mention here that NOTA option has been kept in the EVMs as using the same instead of abstaining from the elections ensures that there is no misuse of votes or fraudulent voting.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
