NOTA third most viable option in 13 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar

In one-third of the 40 Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar, NOTA emerged as the third most preferred alternative for voters, and the 'None Of The Above' option accounted for two per cent of the total number of valid votes, according to Election Commission data.

Notably, the trend of people opting for NOTA in droves was seen in three of the states reserved seats, where the total number of such constituencies is six.

The trend was also reflected in Araria and Katihar, both of which have a sizeable number of muslim voters and which were lost by sitting MPs from the minority community to a BJP candidate or an NDA nominee with a sangh background.

The reserved seat of Gopalganj saw the highest number of voters (51,660) who opted for NOTA. The seat went to Ajay Kumar Suman of JD(U) who defeated RJDs Surendra Ram by a massive margin of 2.86 lakh votes.

The constituency with the second highest number of NOTA votes (45699) was Pashchim Champaran. It was retained by sitting BJP MP ...