The ‘None of the Above’ (NOTA) option in the voting system appears to be a conveniently forgotten option for the voters in Haryana, recent elections suggest.

The vote share of NOTA, an alternative choice for the voters to express their dissent on the present political system as well as the candidate in the fray, is going down since its introduction in Haryana during Lok Sabha polls 2014 in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

NOTA option enables the voters to officially register a vote of rejection for all candidates who are contesting. The main objective of the ‘NOTA’ option was to enable electors who do not wish to vote for any of the candidates to atleast exercise their right to vote.

The data with the Election Commission suggests that there are very few people who have made the effort to queue up at the polling station and choose NOTA as compared to those who simply choose not to cast their vote in the past elections in Haryana.

Sample this. During the Lok Sabha polls 2019, 41781 electors in Haryana choose NOTA option while around 53.7 lakh did not turn up at the polling station to vote. 0.33 percent of the total voters had preferred NOTA option. Out of 1.80 crore eligible voters, 70 percent had cast their vote in the general elections 2019 in the state.

As per the data, maximum of 7943 NOTA votes were cast in Ambala Lok Sabha constituency and minimum of 2,041 NOTA votes in Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha constituency.

Across the country, 1.04 percent of the voters felt that none of the candidates deserved their vote while the NOTA vote share was 1.08 percent in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

In Haryana also, the percentage of votes for NOTA in Lok Sabha polls 2019 remained virtually unchanged from previous general elections 2014. The voting trend suggests that the introduction of dedicated NOTA symbol has not made much difference in elections in the state.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, 34225 electors had opted for NOTA. This was just 0.30 percent of the total 11501305 votes polled during the elections. As only 0.30 electors came out of their homes to express their dissent and choose NOTA, there were around 45.9 lakh voters out of 1.61 crore eligible electors who stayed away from voting in the elections.

The State Assembly elections 2014 had witnessed the highest vote share for NOTA in Haryana so far. The vote percentage for NOTA was 0.4 (53613) votes in the state during previous assembly polls while around 38.9 lakh electors out of eligible 1.63 crore did not turn for voting.

The voting percentage was 70 percent, 71.86 percent and 76.5 percent in Lok Sabha polls 2019, Lok Sabha elections 2014 and State Assembly elections 2014 respectively in Haryana.

During the Jind bypolls held earlier this year and mayoral elections in five cities last year, marginal number of voters had opted for NOTA. Only 345 votes, which was 0.26 percent of the total votes polled were in favour of NOTA in Jind bypolls while 7546 NOTA votes were polled during mayoral elections last year.

Notably, the Supreme Court, in its judgement in the year 2013, had cleared the way for registering a negative vote in EVMs to express popular protest against candidates and their political parties.

NOTA option was treated as a ‘fictional electoral candidate’ during Haryana municipal polls held last year, which meant if it receives the maximum number of votes in an election, a fresh election is ordered.

Political observers say that while NOTA was treated as a fictional candidate during the municipal polls, it has no teeth to annul general elections even when it gets majority votes. This is why it still remains an unpopular option for the voters, they say

In India, NOTA is just a ballot option provided to the voters to express their dislike for the candidates in the fray. But in some countries, if NOTA gets the majority, ideally all the existing candidates should be dismissed and there be re-election, the political observers say.