Mangaluru (The Hindu): According to statistics, 14,243 used it in Dakshina Kannada district and 10,798 in Udupi district.

Voters, who had the option of refusing to choose any party candidate as their representative by exercising NOTA (None of the Above) in the recent zilla panchayat and taluk panchayat elections, used it widely in the coastal districts.

According to statistics, 14,243 used it in Dakshina Kannada district and 10,798 in Udupi district.

In Dakshina Kannada, of 14,243 NOTA votes, the highest was recorded in Ujire (1,034) followed by Uppinangady (786). In Udupi, the ZP constituencies of Mandarti (804), Halady (797), and Brahmavar (727) recorded the highest NOTA option.

Green activists of Sahyadri Sanchaya, a registered body, had appealed to voters to exercise NOTA option to register their protest against the Yettinahole project. They had campaigned for the same in Belthangady, Puttur, and Bantwal taluks. Interestingly, Mallika Balakrishna Poojary, Congress candidate, who lost the election from Brahmavar Zilla Panchayat by a narrow margin of 50 votes, blamed the supporters of the expelled Congress MP, K. Jayaprakash Hegde, for getting voters to press NOTA.

Dharwad too

State Election Commissioner P.N. Srinivasachari told The Hindu that NOTA was used the most in Dakshina Kannada and Dharwad districts where there was discontent among people about the Yettinahole and Mahadayi projects, respectively.

“We are yet to get the exact numbers of NOTA votes from across the States. But according to information that we have, activists in these two districts persuaded voters to express their opposition to the projects by using NOTA and this has been successful to a large extent,” he said.

Photo credit: The Hindu