What Makes Voters Opt For None of the Above (NOTA)

GUWAHATI: As many as 1.47 lakh NOTA votes were polled in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll in Assam, reeking of failure on the part of parties to pick up their best candidates. The number of NOTA votes, it seems, is likely to go up this year as voters have already started rejecting a number of candidates for, what they say, not being the best of choices.

NOTA or ‘none of the above’, also known as ‘against all’, is designed to allow a voter to say his/her disapproval of candidates in a voting system. Such a voter, precisely tagged a conscious voter, wants to get the message across that he/she cannot be made to choose one from three bad candidates. He/she, however, is keen to pick up the best from three good candidates. Healthy selection of candidates, a conscious voter feels, is sure to make voters beeline in front of polling booths.

This Lok Sabha poll reeks of a trend that may increase the number of voters opting for NOTA. This is because the parties themselves are confused, and their choice of candidates may land voters in confusion.

Former minister Pradyut Bordoloi, a three-time MLA from Margherita LAC, has been fielded in Nagaon Parliamentary Constituency by the Congress. This is much to the annoyance of a section of voters in the constituency who wants to see a candidate from the constituency itself. This section of voters feels that the oldest national party does not have dearth of ‘local’ candidates in the constituency.

The situation is no different in Tezpur parliamentary constituency. A section of voters, including Congress supporters, in Tezpur are a perplexed lot. They are not ready to accept a retired bureaucrat from outside, MVGK Bhanu, as their candidate on a Congress ticket.

Tezpur MP RP Sharmah resigned from the BJP. The picture is still hazy as to who the BJP is going to field in Tezpur Parliamentary constituency.

Some of the parties have made mess of the whole process of selecting candidates, leaving the voters in a confused state. Even when there seem to be no dearth of potential ticket seekers a number of sitting legislators have been fielded in this Lok Sabha election.

Will such a trend encourage voters to pick up the best candidates of their choice as their representatives? In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Kokrajhar topped the list of NOTA with 18,183 such votes, followed by Dibrugarh with 16,809, Tezpur with 16,667 and Jorhat with 14,648 votes. The lowest number of NOTA votes in 2014 Lok Sabha poll was 4,266 in Karimganj, and that of Guwahati was 6,702.

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