The electorate of Uttar Pradesh rejected party hoppers, mostly fielded by the Congress, while many voters opted for the NOTA (None of the above) option in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls.
However, the political turncoats fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party sailed through in the Narendra Modi wave that swept across the country.
One turncoat fielded by the Bahujan Samaj Party, Danish Ali, who joined the party just before the elections leaving Janata Dal (Secular) of Karnataka, was successful.
BJP candidates Jai Prakash Rawat (Hardoi), Ashok Rawat (Mishrikh), Kesri Devi Patel (Phulpur) and Ramesh Chandra Bind (Bhadohi), who joined the BJP after leaving the BSP, won the election.
Congress fielded as many as 32 party hoppers out of the 67 candidates it fielded, but none of them could even save their security deposits. Only three candidates of the Congress came at the second place — Congress president Rahul Gandhi from Amethi, Imran Masood from Saharanpur and Raj Babbar from Fatehpur Sikri. The party won only one seat — Rae Bareli from where United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi has been successful.
The other prominent turncoats fielded by the Congress were Savitribai Phule (Bahraich), Ramcharitra Nishad (Mirzapur), Raj Kishore Singh (Basti), Ramakant Yadav (Bhadohi) and Bhal Chandra Yadav (Sant Kabir Nagar).
NOTA played a big role in the Lok Sabha polls in UP as candidates in two constituencies won with margins that were less than the NOTA votes. In Machhlishahr, BJP candidate BP Saroj won the poll against BSP’s T Ram by a margin of just 181 votes. But surprisingly, 10,830 voters in the constituency opted for NOTA.
Similarly, in Shravasti constituency, BJP’s sitting member Daddan Mishra lost the poll to BSP’s Ram Shiromani by 5,320 votes while the 17,108 voters opted for NOTA.
In UP, a total of 7,25,079 voters opted for NOTA, i.e. about 0.84 per cent of the total votes polled in the 8o Lok Sabha constituencies of the state.
In Chandauli too, where BJP state president Mahendra Nath Pandey won by 13,959 votes, the NOTA votes were 11,218.
The highest NOTA votes were polled in Robertsganj where 21,118 voters opted for this option, i.e. 2.14 per cent of the votes polled in the constituency. In Kaushambi too, 14,769 voters opted for NOTA while in Mirzapur, 15,353 votes were polled under the NOTA option. In Fatehpur, 14,692 voters opted for NOTA.
