The number of ‘None Of The Above’ (NOTA) option used by voters in EVMs which remained on third position in Assembly elections in Bastar maintained its position to get greater number of votes than even CPI, AAP and BSP candidates in the lok Sabha polls in the Bastar lok Sabha constituency.
BJP candidate Dinesh Kashyap was declared elected from Bastar Parliamentary constituency after he defeated his nearest rival Deepak Karma of the Congress party. In Bastar constituency there are 1,2,97941 voters out of which 76,9972 cast their votes in the lok Sabha elections. ‘As many as 769913 votes were found valid out of the total votes cast. Dinesh Kashyap received 385829 votes, Deepak Karma received 261470 votes and NOTA was opted by 38,772 voters. These were followed by Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate Vimla Sori with 33,883 votes, Aam Admi Party (AAP) candidate Sona Sori with 16903 votes and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Manbodh Baghel with 9774 votes.
As far as the entire State is concerned, NOTA remained on third position in Sarguja, Raigarh, Rajnandgaon, Bastar and Kanker constituencies. However, the number of votes received by NOTA was much less than received in Assembly election during lok Sabha polls. NOTA had received 4 lakh 3thousand votes in 90 assembly constituencies in the elections held last year in the State. In the lok Sabha polls, it has received 2.24 lakh votes only but yet maintained third position in five lok Sabha constituencies of the State.