A total of 65,22,772 voters, or 1.06%, chose to reject all the candidates in fray in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Of these, 22,272 votes were polled through postal ballots. While Bihar recorded the highest percentage of NOTA at 2%, the lowest per cent of people opting to press the rejection button was in Nagaland, at 0.20%. This newspaper takes a look:
Genesis of NOTA
While the political class was largely opposed to the idea of an option to reject all the candidates during elections, a writ petition was filed by NGO People’s Union of Civil Liberties in the Supreme Court. The top court, in its September 27, 2013 order, directed that there should be a ‘None of the Above’ (NOTA) option on ballot papers and electronic voting machines. The Election Commission subsequently made a provision for NOTA, so that voters who came to the polling stations and decided not to vote for any candidates, were able to exercise their right not to vote for such candidates, while maintaining the secrecy of their ballot. The NOTA option was first made available during the assembly elections of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, NCT of Delhi and Rajasthan in 2013, and continued thereafter in all state and Lok Sabha polls.
The symbol
NOTA votes are generally not considered while calculating the total valid votes polled by a contesting candidate. A candidate loses his election deposit f he or she fails to poll one-sixth of ballots cast in his or her constituency. The Election Commission announced the symbol for NOTA option in 2015. The design, with a crossed out ballot paper, was created by the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. However, the EC also chooses to spell out the word on EVMs at times.