Chhattisgarh is on the threshold of creating history next month. Besides its unique tribal culture, lifestyle, mineral resources and the raging Red insurgency, Chhattisgarh is set to witness debut of ‘Right to Reject’ which is better known as ‘None of The Above’ (NOTA) in the Electronic Voting Machine, thanks to the historic recent rulings of the Supreme Court.
As many as 1,67,96174 voters of Chhattisgarh will have honour to exercise NOTA at 21, 418 polling booths for 90 members assembly polls to be held in two phases — November 11 and Nov 19.
The provision NOTA button in EVM has captured imagination of large number of voters, irrespective of their age as it is being seen an opportunity, a freedom from the compulsion to choose a bad candidate from among the worst. Some also see it a solid step towards the much needed poll reform in India. luckily, the Chhattisgarh people will be the first to use NOTA in the ensuing Assembly elections.
As per Chhattisgarh’s Chief Electoral Officer the state election officer Sunil Kujur, from the ensuing Assembly election itself, now the EVMs should have NOTA button below the name of the last candidate, providing the electors opportunity to reject all if they do not want to elect any of the
candidates fielded from his/her constituency.
According to him the Election Commission is also taking steps to make electors aware of as also to train field level officials including the polling personnel about the NOTA option.
Meanwhile, after this much awaited option becoming a reality, students, academician and professionals of Chhattisgarh have expressed hope that it would not only provide them to reject unwanted candidate but also restrain political parties from fielding tainted or criminal background candidates.
While Dr Sachin Mishra, a medical student, saw it a very good step forcing the political outfits to keep public sentiments in view while deciding their candidates, it would also improve voting percentage. Suneel Dubey, Area Manager, Sahara India, on the other hand said that ‘Our vote will not go waste this time.’’
Yogendra Choubey, alumni of National School of Drama Delhi and Professor at Indira Kala Sangeet University Khairagarh said ‘Now we have the right to select no one instead of selecting a bad from the worst.” SK Mishra, Principal govt School Mainpat was of the view NOTA will improve the voting percent in urban areas as the educated persons who live in cities earlier refrained from casting their votes because people were forced to elect one even he/she was not good.