A total of 48,043 voters in Uttarakhand used the None Of The Above (NOTA) option in the five lok Sabha constituencies of the State in the general election 2014. This has been welcomed by those working for voters' awareness and electoral reforms as it is hoped that the use of NOTA by this considerable number of voters will send a message to the political parties.
According to the Election Commission of India data, in the Almora parliamentary constituency 15,245 voters used the NOTA option, the third highest category after the voters who favoured the BJP and Congress candidates. The BJP candidate from Almora, Ajay Tamta polled 348186, followed by Congress candidate Pradeep Tamta with 252496 votes, 15245 NOTA users followed by 14150 votes polled by the Bahujan Samaj Party candidate BR Dhauni. Similarly, the number of voters who used the NOTA option was 8659 in the Garhwal parliamentary constituency, 3049 in Haridwar constituency, 10,328 in Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar constituency and 10,762 in Tehri constituency. Welcoming the use of the NOTA by thousands of voters, the Uttarakhand Election Watch coordinator BP Maithani said that efforts had been made to raise awareness among voters about the NOTA option. "The voters were encouraged to use the NOTA option in case they found none of the candidates contesting in their constituency, fit to be elected. The parliamentary election 2014 has seen a wave in favour of the BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi so even weak candidates have won from various constituencies, riding on this wave.
However, we are happy that so many people in Uttarakhand have used the NOTA option. In the 2012 Assembly elections in Uttarakhand only 79 persons had used this option after filling the Form 17 but this time the NOTA button provided on the EVM and other factors led to an increase in the number of people who used this option," he said.