(Image source from: Rediff.com)

Days after Andhra Pradesh assembly and Lok Sabha election results were declared, numbers show that NOTA or ‘None of the above’ category got more votes than the two national parties Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party in both the Lok Sabha and assembly election in Andhra Pradesh this time.

As per the numbers, NOTA category accrued around 1.5 percent of votes on the 25 Lok Sabha seats, while BJP got just 0.96 percent. Congress did only marginally better at 1.29 percent. The result was no different for the 175 assembly seats with NOTA getting 1.28 percent of the votes, BJP 0.84 percent and Congress 1.17 percent.

Such was the decimation that all candidates of the two parties lost their deposits on both Lok Sabha and assembly seats. This includes BJP state president Kanna Lakshminarayana who contested on the Narasaraopet Lok Sabha seat and Congress state president N Raghuveera Reddy who finished third in the Kalyandurg assembly constituency.

By Sowmya Sangam