Nagpur Civic Polls Witness NOTA Surge as Voters Choose Rejection
Nagpur's 2026 Municipal Corporation elections delivered a clear message. A significant portion of voters expressed their discontent by selecting NOTA, or None of the Above. This option emerged as a powerful spoiler in the electoral process.
Sharp Rise in NOTA Votes Recorded
Out of 12,75,900 total votes cast across the city, a striking 1,19,120 voters pressed the NOTA button. This figure represents 9.34% of the electorate. It marks a sharp 25% increase from the 94,759 NOTA votes recorded in the 2017 civic polls.
The NOTA tally did more than just grow. It actually exceeded the total votes secured by 274 individual candidates competing across 38 prabhags. This fact alone highlights the scale of voter rejection.
NOTA Outnumbers Winning Margins in Key Contests
The impact of NOTA became critically evident in several tightly fought prabhags. In these areas, the number of NOTA votes far surpassed the winning candidate's margin of victory.
Consider Prabhag 31(A). Here, Ganesh Charlewar from Shiv Sena (Shinde) won his seat. He secured victory with a margin of 920 votes. However, 2,043 voters in that prabhag chose NOTA. That number is more than double his winning margin. A partial shift in these votes could have changed the contest's outcome.
A similar pattern unfolded in Prabhag 14. This area saw multiple close races. In segment 14(B), BJP's Madhuri Tekam defeated Congress candidate Anjana Madavi by a mere 494 votes. Meanwhile, NOTA accounted for 1,237 votes here, more than twice the victory margin.
In the same prabhag's seat D, Congress candidate Abhijeet Jha won against BJP's Pragati Patil. His margin was a slender 122 votes. Yet, NOTA polled 414 votes in that segment, over three times the difference between the top two candidates.
Widespread Presence Across the City
NOTA maintained a visible presence in other parts of Prabhag 14 as well. Prabhag 14(A) recorded 593 NOTA votes against a winning margin of 1,336. Ward 14(C) saw 862 voters choose NOTA, compared to a victory margin of 1,437. While margins were wider here, the NOTA figures remained significant in the overall vote distribution.
Prabhag-wise data underlined the consistent feature of NOTA across Nagpur. Ward 31 recorded the highest NOTA votes at 4,793. It was followed by Ward 29 with 4,662 votes and Ward 20 with 4,581 votes.
High NOTA counts also came from Prabhag 11 (4,289), Prabhag 34 (4,177), Prabhag 12 (4,123), and Prabhag 28 (3,988). This indicates that voter disengagement was not limited to a single pocket of the city.
Even wards with comparatively lower numbers reflected the trend. Prabhag 38 logged the lowest NOTA count at 924. Prabhag 3 recorded 1,496 votes, and Prabhag 6 saw 1,986 NOTA votes.
Observers Note a Shift in Voter Behavior
Political observers are taking note. They point out that the steady rise in NOTA votes, both in absolute numbers and as a share of total votes, reflects a clear segment of the electorate. These voters are actively choosing rejection over simple abstention.
The narrowing gap between winning margins and NOTA votes in several wards adds a new layer to electoral analysis. It suggests that in city-level contests, voter dissatisfaction can now materially influence results, acting as a decisive spoiler.
