Gujarat assembly polls: Why NOTA could play a crucial role in 2022 elections?

New Delhi, Nov 17: NOTA, or None Of The Above, an option that appears on the last panel on all Electronic Voting Machines may play a very significant role in the upcoming Gujarat elections. An option that enables the voters to officially reject all the candidates who are contesting could impact the numbers significantly in the the upcoming elections for 182 seats in Gujarat assembly which will be held in two phases.

In 2017, NOTA affected results in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state Gujarat where it got more votes than the two national parties - the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress -- barring independent candidates.

According to numbers released by the Election Commission, NOTA raked 5,51,615, of all votes polled. In comparison, the BJP got 1,47,24,427 of all voters polled while the Congress received 1,24,38,937 votes.

In percentage terms, 1.8% voters in Gujarat pressed the NOTA button higher than that of any party other than that of the major political parties. While the saffron party secured 49 per cent votes, Congress received 41.4 per cent and independents together polled for 4.3 per cent.

NOTA even outperformed some of the major parties, including Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) that contested the Gujarat elections as well.

According to political experts, this time around the number of voters using NOTA in this assembly election could be huge. It is believed that there would be an anti-incumbency wave against the major political parties and NOTA will be used in the absence of strong candidates for Congress.

Ever since the 'None of the Above' (NOTA) has been introduced to the EVMs in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, there has been considerable interest on the number of votes polled for NOTA in every election. Though BJP and Congress might have been voters' popular choices, both parties are trying hard to ensure that NOTA does not come in the way of a victory.

For the unversed, what is NOTA?

The NOTA button in the Electronic Voting Machine means voter wants to keep himself away from this election and wants to maintain secrecy so no one casts fake vote on behalf of him.

Before the introduction of EVMs, when voting was done, voters were required to enter their names in a register and cast their votes on a separate paper ballot.

This provision was, however, deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Courton 27th September 2013 as it did not protect the identity of the voter.

How does one cast a vote?

This symbol appears on EVMs at the end of the candidates' list.

Why have NOTA if there's no Electoral value?

The negative voting is just a feedback. The main objective of the 'NOTA' option is that it will encourage voters who are not satisfied with any of the candidates to turn up to express their opinion and reject all contestants.