In a landmark 2013 judgment, the Supreme Court of India had directed the Election Commission to introduce the None of The Above (NOTA) button in ballot papers and EVMs to enable voters to register their right not to vote, rejecting the candidates in the fray, in the same manner as their statutory right to vote. In the judgment, the SC reasoned that democracy is all about choice, and providing a NOTA button in the EVMs will accelerate the effective political participation in the present state of the democratic system and the voters will be empowered. The EC introduced NOTA in EVMs in November 2013. Now, the SC is hearing a batch of petitions seeking more teeth to NOTA. Here’s how people registered their dissent by exercising NOTA in the 2024 elections:
Total NOTA
As per the Election Commission of India, in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, NOTA’s vote share is 0.99% or 6,372,220 votes. This is 0.07% less than the 1.06% recorded in 2019.
The third option
In states like Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh, NOTA emerged as the third most preferred choice. In the Lok Sabha seats of Himachal, the contest was between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) also contested all four seats but could not surpass NOTA figures. According to EC, NOTA stood third with 0.57% vote share or 23,125 votes, the BSP candidates’ total votes were 21,404 or 0.52%. All the four BSP candidates had to lose their security deposits.
In Karnataka, a third of the 28 Lok Sabha seats saw NOTA rising as the third-most preferred option. The constituencies where it stood third are Bangalore Rural, Bangalore North, Bangalore South, Bangalore Central, Udupi-Chikmagalur, Bellary, Dakshin Kannada, Haveri and Raichur. In Gujarat, NOTA was the third-most preferred choice in 24 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats with 1.56% vote share. Being largely the third choice in all LS constituencies in the state, the only exception was Jamnagar, where it ranked fourth with 11,082 votes. In Andhra Pradesh as well, NOTA was the third choice in four of the 25 Lok Sabha seats with 1.2% vote share. In Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, and Kerala, the NOTA votes have seen an uptick from the 2019 elections. Gujarat’s NOTA vote share was up from 1.40 in 2019 to 1.56% in 2024, Madhya Pradesh (0.93% to 1.41%), Assam (1.00% to 1.19%), and Kerala (0.51% to 0.79%).
Up in north-east
While NOTA votes dipped nationally to 0.99% from 1.06% in 2019, the northeast states lead against the national figures. The NOTA votes increased from an average of 0.71% in 2019 to 0.81% in 2024. In the eight states of the northeast with 25 Lok Sabha seats, 14 fall in Assam, two in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Tripura, and one each in Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim.
In Assam, NOTA saw the highest mandate with an average of 1.19% in 14 seats. Tripura stood second with 1.41%, followed by Arunachal and Meghalaya with 0.98% each. NOTA votes increased in Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, and Tripura as compared to 2019. It decreased in Arunachal and Mizoram and remained the same in Nagaland. The least NOTA votes were cast in Nagaland (1,646), Mizoram (1,898), and Arunachal West (2,296).
The curious case of Indore
The Indore Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh that became politically controversial before the elections registered the highest-ever 2.18 lakh NOTA votes. This constituted 12.28% of the total vote share.
This surpassed the record by Gopalganj seat in Bihar, where NOTA’s vote share was 5% or 51,660 votes. BJP’s Shankar Lalwani won the Lok Sabha election from this seat by a margin of 11,75,092 votes, while the 13 candidates against him lost their security deposits. Lalwani’s nearest rival, BSP’s Sanjay Solanki secured 51,759 votes only.
The seat became controversial before the elections because the Congress candidate Akshay Kanti Bam withdrew his nomination and joined the BJP at the last minute. As a consequence, no one from the INDIA alliance contested for that seat. In the wake of this, the Congress spearheaded a campaign urging the constituency’s electorate to vote for NOTA accusing the BJP of “murdering democracy”.
In J&K, NOTA score higher than candidates
In Jammu and Kashmir, 68% of candidates received fewer votes than NOTA. A total of 34,788 NOTA votes were registered in the five seats and the maximum NOTA votes were cast in Udhampur in Jammu where BJP candidate Jitendra Singh retained the seat. NOTA got more votes than nine candidates of 11 in that seat. In Jammu, out of 22 candidates, NOTA got more votes than 18 and BJP’s Jugal Kishore retained the seat. In Srinagar, out of 24 candidates, 18 got fewer votes than NOTA. In the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency, 9 out of 20 candidates got fewer votes than NOTA. In the Baramulla seat, 14 out of 22 candidates secured fewer votes than NOTA. While in Ladakh, all three candidates got more votes than NOTA.