In more than 20 seats, number of NOTA votes was more than the defeat margin of BJP candidates.
NEW DELHI: In his annual Vijayadashmi address in October, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat had appealed to people not to exercise the “None of the above” (NOTA) option given on the ballot paper while casting their votes.
As per RSS observers, the statement was based on reports the RSS functionaries who were active on the ground, especially in Madhya Pradesh, had given.
In these reports, the functionaries had suggested that a strong anti-incumbency wave was going on in MP against more than 100 BJP MLAs and since the voters were not sure regarding whether they should vote for Congress or not, a large number of them would lodge their protest against the BJP government by opting for NOTA.
In the end, when the results of the state elections were declared, NOTA received more than 5 lakh votes or roughly 1.4% of the total votes polled in MP. In the 2013 polls, NOTA had got 6.4 lakh votes or 1.91% of the total votes.
“In a large number of seats, as per the initial analysis, NOTA has come at the third position. In almost 90% seats, NOTA has got 4-figure votes while it is more than what the defeat margin was for our candidates in 20 plus seats. It is very interesting and also saddening for us that more than 5 lakh people came out of their home, stood in line, just to vote for NOTA,” said a Bhopal-based BJP spokesperson.
“Last time, it was not a close election and hence did not affect us. But if you consider that in the end, we got around 50,000 more votes than the Congress and that we fell short by just 7 seats, then these 5 lakh votes become a huge number,” he added.
According to BJP leaders, the close fight in which the BJP got more votes than the Congress but could not convert it into more seats, was because of the anger against the local MLAs and not the party or the leadership of outgoing Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as such.
“This was known to us (that the local MLAs were a source of a huge anger). We were getting reports that people of particular constituencies were happy with Shivraj but were angry with their MLAs. And since the MLA was their point of contact to the party, when the election came, they did not spare him or her,” a Rajya Sabha MP said.
“It is pretty obvious that if we had done a course correction earlier by either strictly asking the MLAs to work properly or by deputing ministers to take care of that seat, we would have easily won again. You must understand that there was no wave against Shivraj,” he added.