The none-of-the-above (NOTA) option polled nearly 2% votes in three out of five Lok Sabha constituencies in the Coimbatore region as the election results were announced on Thursday.
In the Coimbatore Parliamentary constituency, the total number of NOTA votes were 23,190, combining the 23,081 votes from electronic voting machines (EVM) and 109 postal votes.
NOTA votes formed 1.85% of the total vote share in the constituency. In Tiruppur Parliamentary constituency, NOTA votes fared were 21,861 with 21,762 EVM votes and 79 postal votes, making its vote share 1.95%, according to official data.
The Nilgiris Parliamentary constituency saw 18,149 NOTA votes after the addition of 18,096 EVM votes and 53 postal votes, forming 1.8% of the total votes polled in the constituency.
However, Pollachi and Erode constituencies saw relatively less vote share of NOTA votes.
Pollachi Parliamentary constituency had 15,110 NOTA votes with 15,068 EVM votes and 42 postal votes, bringing its vote share to 1.4%.
Erode Parliamentary constituency polled 14,795 NOTA votes with 14,696 EVM votes and 99 postal votes, bringing its vote share to 1.39%.
Invalid postal votes
The five Parliamentary constituencies saw a total of 2,309 invalid postal votes. Erode topped the list with 1,140 invalid postal votes and Pollachi ranked the last with 13 invalid postal votes.
The number of invalid postal votes for Coimbatore, Tiruppur and the Nilgiris were 317, 509 and 330 respectively.
A total of 59 candidates from the five Parliamentary constituencies in the Coimbatore region lost their security deposit in the Lok Sabha elections.
Erode saw 17 candidates losing their security deposits while the Nilgiris saw eight candidates who lost their deposits.
According to the Election Commission rules, the security deposit is forfeited if the candidate fails to get at least one-sixth of the total valid votes polled during the election.
