In Jammu Kashmir, an astonishing 68 percent of the candidates contesting for the five Lok Sabha seats received fewer votes than the None Of The Above (NOTA) option, as per data from the Election Commission.
Collectively, 34,788 voters across these constituencies opted for the NOTA button, indicating their disapproval of the available candidates.
The Udhampur constituency in the Jammu region saw the highest NOTA votes, with 12,938 ballots cast in favor of this option. Despite this, the seat was retained by BJP candidate Jitendra Singh. Among the 11 other contenders in Udhampur, NOTA garnered more votes than nine of them.
In the adjacent Jammu constituency, 4,645 voters chose NOTA, surpassing the individual vote count of 18 out of 22 candidates. This seat was also retained by BJP’s Jugal Kishore.
In Srinagar, 5,998 voters opted for NOTA. With 24 candidates in the race, 18 of them received lesser votes than the NOTA option.
The Anantnag-Rajouri constituency saw 6,223 NOTA votes. Among the 20 candidates contesting, nine received fewer votes than NOTA.
In Baramulla, 4,984 voters chose NOTA, which outpolled 14 out of the 22 candidates running for the seat.
An analysis of the Election Commission’s data reveals that out of 100 candidates, 68 secured fewer votes than the NOTA option.
In contrast, the Ladakh Union Territory, which was part of the former state of Jammu Kashmir until its reorganization in August 2019 and the abrogation of Article 370, saw only 912 NOTA votes.
Ladakh, the only Parliamentary constituency in the Union Territory, had three candidates, all of whom received more votes than NOTA.