Bihar Assembly Polls: Winners bagged average 25.23% of total registered votes, says ADR

PTI, Dec 8, 2020, 8:24 PM IST

The winners in the Bihar Assembly elections bagged an average 25.23 per cent of the total registered votes, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The elections for 243 constituencies took place in three phases on October 28 (for 71 seats), November 3 (for 94 seats) and November 7 (for 78 seats). The National Democratic Alliance won the elections after securing majority.

In a statement, the poll rights group said the winners won with an average of 25.23 per cent of the total registered voters. “This implies that the winners represent on an average 25.23 per cent of the total electorate.” In the previous Assembly elections in 2015, the winners bagged an average 25.09 per cent of the total registered votes, it said.

Among the major parties, out of 75 winners of the RJD, 41 (55 per cent) have won less than 25 per cent of votes of the total registered voters in their respective constituency. Eighteen (24 per cent) out of 74 winners from the BJP, 26 (60 per cent) out of 43 winners from the JD(U), 12 (63 per cent) out of 19 winners from the Congress, three (25 per cent) out of 12 winners from the CPI(ML)(L) have won less than 25 per cent of votes of the total registered voters in their respective constituency, the ADR said.

The poll rights group said three winners have won with a victory margin of less than 200 votes. It said, “Fifty-eight out of 165 winners with declared criminal cases have won against a runner-up with a clean background.” The ADR said 42 out of 196 crorepati winners have won against a non-crorepati runner-up.

Among the 243 winners, 26 are women and all of them registered a vote share of 27 per cent and above. “Among the women winners, Kavita Devi (BJP) from Korha constituency has won with the highest vote share, i.e. 53.31 per cent in her constituency. She has won with 38.12 per cent representativeness…,” it said.

All the 96 candidates who were re-elected registered a vote share of 30 per cent and above and 12 (13 per cent) of them bagged more than 50 per cent of the votes polled. ‘NOTA’ or “None Of The Above’ button instated by the Election Commission in 2013 gave the voters an option of rejecting all candidates in their constituency.

Out of 4,21,37,619 votes polled in the 2020 elections, 7,06,252 (1.68 per cent) were polled for NOTA. Out of 3,81,20,124 votes polled in the 2015 elections, 9,47,279 (2.48 per cent) were polled for NOTA, the ADR said.