New Delhi: Of the 36 political parties, whose representatives were elected to the 17th Lok Sabha, 15 got fewer votes than NOTA. Many of these parties contested only a handful of seats. Introduced in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the none of the above (NOTA) option, which indicates disapproval of all the candidates in a constituency, accounted for 1.06 per cent of the total votes polled in this general elections. In 2014 elections, around 1.08 per cent of the total voters opted for the NOTA option.
Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) won six Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, but received only 0.52 per cent of the total votes polled. Parties with three seats — the Communist Party of India-Marxist (0.01 per cent votes), the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (0.05 per cent votes) and the Indian Union Muslim League (0.26 per cent votes) — received less number of votes than NOTA. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen, the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Apna Dal won two Lok Sabha seats each. (IANS)
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