Telangana 2023 Elections highlights: Voters preferred candidates with criminal cases than NOTA

Hyderabad: In the 2023 Telangana State Assembly elections, voters preferred electing candidates with declared criminal cases or with criminal backgrounds rather than rejecting them by voting for NOTA (None of the Above), even when no candidate on the list had a clean background.

Interestingly, over 45 per cent i.e. 37 out of 82 winners with declared criminal cases have won against a runner-up with a clean background while just 0.73 per cent votes were polled for NOTA.

Alternatively, on a separate list, 26 out of 37 winners (70%) with a clean background have won against a candidate with declared criminal cases. Thus, 82 candidates with criminal backgrounds and 37 candidates with clean backgrounds i.e. a total of 119 candidates from all the constituencies have made it to the Telangana Assembly as MLAs.

A total of 23 per cent, which is 527 candidates of the total 2,290 candidates who contested the elections, had declared criminal cases against them.

The facts and figures are based on the recent report of Telangana elections shared by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Telangana Election Watch (TEW) who have analysed the vote share for all 119 constituencies in the Telangana Assembly Elections 2023.

The voter turnout for the Telangana Assembly election 2023 was 73.9 per cent whereas voter turnout in the Telangana Assembly elections 2018 was 73.7 per cent.

Winners with criminal cases

As per the observations of ADR and TEW about winners with declared criminal cases and their margin of victory, it was found that 37 out of 82 winners with declared criminal cases have won against a runner-up with a clean background.

Among these 37 winners, three winners have won with more than a 30 per cent margin of victory. Among these, Akbaruddin Owaisi (AIMIM) from Chandrayangutta constituency won with a 53.10 per cent margin of victory. A total of 42 (51%) out of 82 winners with declared criminal cases have won with a vote share of 50 per cent and above.

Winners with clean background

A total of 26 out of 37 winners with a clean background have won against a runner-up with declared criminal cases.

Among these 26 winners, one winner has won with more than a 30 per cent margin of victory. Kotta Prabhakar Reddy (BRS) from Dubbak constituency won with a 30.62 per cent margin of victory. A total of 11 (30%) out of 37 winners with a clean background have won with a vote share of 50 per cent and above.

NOTA gets 0.73% of votes

The None of the Above (NOTA) button instated by the ECI in 2013 gave the voters an option of rejecting all the candidates in their constituency. Out of 2,34,39,854 votes polled in the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections, 1,71,940 (0.73%) were polled for NOTA.

Vote share of winners

All the winners of the Telangana State Assembly Elections in 2023 won with an average of 35.7 per cent of the total registered voters. This implies that the winners represent on average 35.7 per cent of the total electorate. This implies that the winners represent on average 35.7 per cent of the total electorate. In the Telangana State Assembly Elections 2018 as well, winners won by an average of 37 per cent of the total registered voters.

Just two winners have won with a margin of victory of less than 1,000 votes while four winners have won with more than a 35 per cent margin of victory.

The winners of the Telangana State Assembly elections 2023 won by an average of 48.3 per cent of the total votes polled. In the 2018 elections, winners won by an average of 50.2 per cent of total votes polled. A total of 53 (45%) winners won with 50 per cent and above of the total votes polled in their constituency while 66 (55%) winners won with less than 50 per cent of the total votes polled in their constituency.

Performance of the 10 women winners

Among the 119 winners, only 10 are women. None of the women winners have won with less than 35 per cent of vote share.

Among the women winners, Nalamada Padmavathi Reddy (INC) from Kodad Constituency won with the highest vote share i.e. 60.19 per cent in her constituency and 27.83 per cent margin of victory.

Crorepati winners

A total of 49 (43%) out of 114 crorepati winners have won with a vote share of 50 per cent and above whereas 4 (80%) out of five non-crorepati winners have won with a vote share of 50 per cent and above.

Again, five out of 114 crorepati winners have won against non-crorepati runners-up. Among these five winners, five winners have won with more than a 40 per cent margin of victory.

Among these, Akbaruddin Owaisi (AIMIM) from Chandrayangutta constituency won with a 53.10 per cent margin of victory. Also, four out of five non-crorepati winners have won against crorepati runners-up. Among these four winners, one winner has won with more than a 20 per cent margin of victory. Adinarayana Jare (INC) from Aswaraopeta constituency won with a 21.22 per cent margin of victory.

Performance of Re-elected Winners

Out of 32 re-elected winners, none have won with less than 30 per cent of vote share in their respective constituencies and 10 (31%) have won with more than 50 per cent of vote share.

A total of 13 (41%) re-elected winners have won with less than a 10 per cent margin of victory whereas two candidates have won with more than a 40 per cent margin of victory.