How Bengal Assembly elections was won – it was the NOTA effect

West Bengal is known to be more political conscious than any other state and this has been borne out by the liberal use of the NOTA option in the just concluded elections to the West Bengal assembly. As per available records, a total of 8.30 lakh people in Bengal opted for NOTA and this is more than the four other states - Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry - that went to the polls this year.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 21 May 2016.

CPM's candidate won from Barjora in Bankura defeating TMC candidate by a margin of only 616 votes. Similarly, TMC cadidate defeated CPM veteran from Raidighi in South 24-Parganas by 1229 votes. It was all thanks to NOTA because the NOTA votes were higher than the victory margin. In Barjora, the votes polled in favour of NOTA was 4235, and in case of Raidighi it was 1710.
Incidentally, NOTA votes are higher than the victory margin in as many as 21 constituencies. One reason for this is the alliance between the Congress and the Left front - when it came down to grind level, the people could not accept the logic of casting the vote for one who had along been a sworn enemy. In the bargain, TMC emerged victorious.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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