In about 25 constituencies in Tamil Nadu, the option ‘None of The Above (NOTA) votes were enough to impact the results. AIADMK emerged winner in 16 of the constituencies, providing edge required to beat the DMK, according to The New Indian Express.  

In many constituencies, the NOTA votes were much higher than the margin of victory and in some other constituencies, the margin was close to the number of votes which went for NOTA.

In Chennai region, more than 5,000 votes went to NOTA. Shollinganallur constituency registered the highest number of NOTA votes which is, 7332, according to The New Indian Express. Moreover, in Chennai, the AIADMK’s would have lost in few more constituencies if those votes would have gone to DMK as the NOTA votes were higher than the winning margin.

Accordingly, if Gokula Indira of AIADMK had received the NOTA votes of 4,084 in Anna Nagar then she might have won the elections. Her losing margin was 1,687 votes. In Tirunelveli, AIADMK candidate N Nagendran lost by 801 votes where the NOTA votes were 2,218 votes.

Similarly, for two Dalit leaders, VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan and Puthiya Tamilagam leader K Kishnasamy who lost by a margin of 87 and 493 votes could have easily won with the NOTA votes of 1,025 and 2,612, according to TNIE.