In the eight Assembly constituencies of Dakshina Kannada and five Assembly segments of Udupi district, a little over 50 persons for every 10,000 persons have used None Of The Above (NOTA) vote option in 2023 Assembly elections.
A total of 9,095 persons used NOTA in Dakshina Kannada, which is 0.51% of the total electorate of 17.81 lakh. In Udupi district, 5,391 persons used NOTA, which is 0.52% of the total electorate of 10.41 lakh.
In 2018 Assembly elections, a total of 8,815 persons used NOTA in Dakshina Kannada, which was 0.51% of the total electorate of 17.12 lakh. In Udupi district, 6,728 persons used NOTA, which was 0.68% of the total electorate of 9.93 lakh.
In both these elections, this number made no impact on the result as the margin between winning party and runner’s up party ranged between 4,000 and 56,000 votes.
Dakshina Kannada
In this election, the highest of 2,562 NOTA (1.24% of 2.06 lakh electorate) was in Sullia Assembly constituency where the victorious BJP candidate Bhagirathi Murulya defeated Congress’ G. Krishnappa by a margin of 30,874 votes. The lowest of 720 (0.35% of 2.05 lakh electorate) was in Mangaluru (Ullal) Assembly constituency where Congress’ U.T. Khader defeated BJP’s Satish Kumpala by a margin of 22,790 votes
In Mangaluru City South, NOTA was used by 1,203 persons (0.49% of 2.45 lakh electorate), followed by Belthangady which had 892 NOTA votes (0.39% of 2.28 lakh electorate). In the Mangaluru City North constituency, NOTA votes were at 1,194 (0.48% of 2.49 lakh electorate), where incumbent BJP MLA Y. Bharath Shetty defeated Congress’ Inayath Ali by a margin of 32,922 votes, which was highest margin in Dakshina Kannada district in this election.
There were 837 NOTA (0.41% of 2.05 lakh electorate) votes in Moodbidri Constituency, while 821 (0.36% of 2.28 lakh electorate) NOTA votes were in Bantwal Assembly constituency. The NOTA was 866 (0.41% of 2.12 lakh electorate) votes in Puttur Assembly constituency, where the victorious Congress candidate Ashok Kumar Rai defeated Independent candidate Arun Kumar Puthila by a margin of 4,149 votes.
In Udupi district, the highest of 1,316 NOTA (0.61% of 2.16 lakh electorate) was in Udupi Assembly constituency where BJP’s Yashpal Suvarna defeated Congress’s Prasadraj Kanchan by a margin of 32,776 votes. The lowest of 805 NOTA (0.43% of 1.88 lakh electorate) votes was in Kaup Constituency.
As many as 1,208 NOTA (0.51% of 2.35 lakh electorate) votes were in Byndoor Assembly constituency, followed by 1,141 (0.54% of 2.09 lakh electorate) NOTA votes in Kundapura Assembly constituency. There were 921 NOTA (0.48% of 1.9 lakh electorate) votes in Karkala Assembly constituency where sitting MLA V. Sunil Kumar defeated Congress’ Uday Shetty Muniyal by a margin of 4,602 votes.
