Over 30,000 voters preferred NOTA in Panchayat elections

Aurangabad, Jan 20:

In the Gram Panchayat elections in the district, about 3 per cent or 27,000 to 30,000 rural voters voted for the None of the Above (NOTA) button. As a result, the candidates won by a margin of 10 to 20 votes in many places, while in 18 places the candidates bagged the same number of votes and the winner had to be declared by drawing lots.

Counting of votes was done in 9 tehsils for this election. Due to tehsil wise counting of votes, the work of collecting all the information from the tehsildar level and making reports continued on Wednesday. Out of 617 gram panchayats, 4,089 members from 579 gram panchayats went to the polls and 32 GPs were elected unopposed. In all, 11,499 candidates were in the fray. Over, 5,51,822 women and 6,04,804 men out of a total of 11,56,626 voters exercised their right to vote.

Lots drawn for 18 wards

36 candidates from 18 gram panchayats in the district got equal votes. The winners were declared by drawing lots. This includes Aurangabad 3, Paithan 3, Vaijapur 4, Sillod 1, Gangapur 1, Phulambri 1 and Kannad 5 candidates.

What the election commission says

According to the election commission, where there are more votes for the NOTA option than the candidates, the candidate who gets the highest number of votes after the note is declared the winner. But there was no need to use this rule in Aurangabad district.

Total number of NOTA votes

It is estimated that NOTA got 3 per cent of the votes as compared to the average turnout in the district. According to administrative sources, the number is between 27,000 and 30,000. The taluka wise information is being collected and after that the final figure will come out, the sources said.