- NOTA for the first time in Sarpanch election

- 10,016 votes were lost due to lack of understanding of the voters

Asifabad, December 24 (Andhra Jyoti): Nota (Nun of the Above) got thousands of votes in Gram Panchayat elections. Among the candidates in the contest, 2,091 people voted for Nota as they did not want to be Sarpanch. 10,016 votes were invalidated in respect of sarpanches due to lack of understanding on the voting procedure. Whereas in Lingapur mandal, the least 51 people voted for NOTA and the highest number of people voted for NOTA was 276 in Kerameri mandal.

Assembly, Parliament..

It is known that the Election Commission conducted municipal, MLA and MP elections through EVMs and introduced NOTA in it. This time, for the first time in the Gram Panchayat elections, the Election Commission has introduced the note. If the candidates in the contest are not liked, the sarpanch and ward members have printed the nota symbol on the ballot paper to express their opinion as to who the voter did not like. As a result, 2,091 voters across the district voted for the sarpanch candidates and expressed their opinions on the ballot.

- Elections in three phases:

Elections were held in three phases in 15 mandals in the district on 11, 14, 17 of this month. There are 335 village panchayats in Tejaguda in Wankidi mandal, Rahapalli and Chilatiguda villages in Asifabad mandal as reservation for sarpanch posts was not made, so elections for sarpanch posts were not held there. Officials conducted elections in remaining 332 Gram Panchayats. There are 3,53,895 voters under those Gram Panchayats. While 2,91,216 voters exercised their right to vote. 2,091 voters in the district voted for NOTA and expressed the opinion that they did not like the candidates. People who are used to EVMs all these years had to put the swastika stamp in the box containing the candidate's symbol in the ballot paper of the sarpanch election. Thus 10,016 votes were invalid across the district. Political analysts say that the votes were invalidated due to the lack of understanding of the people about the voting process. Officials are saying that awareness meetings will be good in the future.

Mandal wise details are as follows..

Mandal Invalid Votes Note

Jainur 436 199

Kerameri 611 276

Lingapur 187 51

Sirpur-U 344 57

Wankidi 1,042 141

Bezzur 810 105

Chintalamanepalli 821 115

Dahegam 631 202

Koutala 789 140

Penchikalpet 329 52

Sirpur-T 645 74

Aasifabad 983 177

Kagaznagar 1,164 235

Rebbena 649 150

Tiryani 575 117

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Total 10,016 2,091

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