The ruling Janata Dal (United) and its ally Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) performed quite well in the Lok Sabha elections, with the JD(U) winning 12 of the 16 seats it contested and LJP(RV) bagging all five seats it sought. However, the top five highest polling NOTA constituencies in the State are seats that these parties bagged.
In the 2024 elections, Bihar polled the highest number of NOTA votes (8,81,618) with 2.07% of voters picking this option. The number was 8,16,950 in 2019 and 5,80,964 in 2014.
The Gopalganj (SC) constituency — where JD(U) candidate Alok Kumar Suman defeated Premnath Chanchal ofVikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), an ally ofopposition Mahagathbandhan — recorded the most number NOTA votes (42,863). In 2019, too, Gopalganj topped the NOTA list with 51,600 votes.
Gopalganj is followed by Hijapur (reserved) with 36, 927 for NOTA. This is the seat where LJP(RV) chief Chirag Paswan defeated Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate Shiv Chandra Ram.
Jhanjharpur, which elected JD(U)‘s Ramprit Mandal over VIP’s Suman Kumar Mahaseth, came next with 35,928 votes for NOTA.
Banka, where JD(U)‘s Giridhari Yadav won against RJD’s Jai Prakash Yadav, and Samasitapur (reserved), which elected the youngest Dalit candidate Sambhavi Choudhary of LJP(RV) over Congress’s Sunny Hazari, polled 34,889 and 32,668 NOTA votes, respectively.
Vaishali and Jamui, two other constituencies where LJP(RV) saw victory, also polled a sizeable chunk of NOTA votes — 27,460 and 26,182, respectively. However, the last place where LJP(RV) contested and won — Khagaria — had the least number of NOTA votes for the party (3,111).
At nine of the 12 seats JD(U) won — Gopalganj, Jhanjharpur, Banka, Madhepura, Sitamarhi, Bhagalpur, Sheohar, Valmikinagar and Siwan — are higher up the list for NOTA vote share. The other three constituencies, Munger, Nalanda and Supaul, got 21,951, 19,217 and 18,612 NOTA votes, respectively.
For the BJP, which won 12 of the 17 seats it contested in Bihar, Darbhanga (23,904) fetched the most number of NOTA votes while Patna Sahib (5,559) got the least.
In Gaya (reserved) constituency, where NDA ally Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular)‘s leader Jitan Ram Manjhi won against RJD’s Kumar Sarvajeet, got the lowest number of NOTA votes in the State — 1,728.
Opposition’s position
Aurangabad, Jehanabad, Buxar and Patliputra, the four seats that RJD won, received 22,627, 11,055, 9,617 and 5,606 NOTA votes, respectively. Congress’s three wins — Kishanganj, Katihar and Sasaram — polled 24,966, 22,939 and 17,219 NOTA votes, respectively.
Karakat and Ara, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) seats, received 21,595 and 16,963 votes for NOTA.
