In Dakshina Kannada constituency, there were 14 candidates in fray, along with the option of NOTA' provided as the 15th option in the ballot list for electorates to choose from.
Astonishingly, NOTA' has ranked overall fifth in the total number of votes polled in Dakshina Kannada, getting 7,109 votes out of the total 12,07,583 votes.
NOTA received the highest votes in the constituency after the top four candidates Nalin Kumar Kateel (BJP), who won with 6,42,739 votes, Janardhan Poojary (Congress) with 4,99,030 votes, Haneef Khan Kodaje (SDPI) with 27,254 votes and K Yadava Shetty (CPIM) with 9,394 votes.
During the counting of votes in Mangalore on Friday, the presence of NOTA manifested itself by having received over 1,600 votes more than the next leading candidate M R Vasudeva from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), who had received 5,442 votes in total.
The remaining candidates in the fray whose tally of votes did not cross the 5,000 mark were irked by the fact that NOTA, which were technically considered as invalid votes by the Election Commission, had received over 7,000 votes.
Assembly-wise NOTA count
Surprisingly, NOTA showed highest votes in its favour in Sullia and Belthangady taluks with 1,048 and 1,040 votes respectively.
A total of 910 voters had opted for NOTA in Puttur taluk, 888 voters in Bantwal taluk, 882 voters in Moodbidri taluk, 845 voters in Mangalore South assembly constituency and 836 voters in Mangalore North constituency. The least count was 658 votes in Mangalore (Ullal) assembly constituency for NOTA.
The Election Commission has also clarified that the NOTA votes will not be considered for determining the forfeiture of security deposit of the contesting candidates.
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