None of the above.
The option to choose not to vote for any political candidate in an election.
In the 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections, as many as 5,51,294 voters decided not to vote for any political party or candidate.
NOTA polled nearly 1.8 percent of the vote share in the state. This is more than the 0.7 percent vote share – or 2,22,694 of the electorate – of Chhotu Vasava’s Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP). The Congress had agreed to share seats with the BTP as part of its post-Rajya Sabha election commitment.
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NOTA’s share of the votes is also more than that of other established political parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which too got 0.7 percent of the vote share. Even the Sharad Pawar led-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) polled 0.6 percent of the vote share, with 1,84,661 members of the electorate voting for the party.
This is the first time that the Gujarat electorate had the option of choosing NOTA in an Assembly election.
In Himachal Pradesh, NOTA polled nearly 0.9 percent of the vote share. In other words, 33,542 voters opted for NOTA in Himachal.
Politically, this brings NOTA to the forefront in an unprecedented manner, since the option had almost no impact in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014.
Earlier this year, in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, nearly 7 lakh voters decided not to vote for any political party or candidate. NOTA polled nearly 1 percent of the vote share in Uttar Pradesh.
This was more than established political parties like Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM, which got 0.2 percent of the votes.
(With inputs from Election Commission of India)
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