Does NOTA lead to systematic change in polling?

A CORRESPONDENT

LAKHIMPUR: Polling will be held on April 11 in five HPCs of Assam - Tezpur, Kaliabor, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur - as a part of the first phase poll of the general election. Amidst poll trivia, speculations regarding the winner of the election are rife among political observers, party supporters and common voters these days. Simultaneously, the issue of casting of franchise through ‘None Of The Above’ (NOTA) button is also being discussed by people.

The Supreme Court of India has ruled that the right to register a NOTA vote in election should apply and has ordered the ECI to provide such a button in the EVM, noting that it will increase participation. Generally, some voters may not support any of the candidates in the election but they have no choice but to select a candidate. The introduction of NOTA option to voters will lead a systematic change in polls and political parties will be forced to project clean candidates. Through the system, the voter are allowed to indicate his disapproval of all candidates. Empowering the voter to reject all candidates if he does not like any and all of the candidates listed in the EVM, is the very purpose of the NOTA option. This option was used for the first time in Chattisgarh Assembly Election in 2013. The general election held in 2014 is the first national election offering this option to the electors.

In the general election which was held for the constitution of the 16th House of People, a total of 11, 204 electors pressed the NOTA button in Lakhimpur HPC out of 11,11,975 turn out. In 2016, by-election was inevitable in Lakhimpur HPC as the elected MP Sarbananda Sonowal quitted to take charge as the Chief Minister of Assam after he won the State Assembly election held in that year from Majuli LAC. In the said by-election, a total of 16,438 electors cast their franchise through NOTA, rejecting all the candidates in fray.

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