Before the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, the demand for removing NOTA from EVMs has started rising. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has said that NOTA option on electronic voting machines should be abolished for those citizens who are not willing to vote for any candidate. Let us tell you that, after the order of the Supreme Court, in 2013, the Election Commission had added NOTA button in EVMs as the last option on the voting panel. NOTA meaning ‘none of the above’ has its own symbol – a ballot paper with a black cross on it.
While talking to journalists at Raipur airport on Saturday, Baghel said that it has been seen that sometimes more votes are cast in NOTA than the margin of victory or defeat. When asked why more than 2 lakh voters had supported NOTA in the 2018 state assembly elections and how this option affects the elections, the CM said, “The Election Commission should take cognizance of this.” Viewed several times That NOTA gets more votes than the margin of victory and defeat (between the two candidates).”
He said that many voters press the NOTA button thinking that they have to press either the top or bottom button. Baghel said that therefore NOTA should be discontinued.
Voting for the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly will be held in two phases on November 7 and 17 and the counting of votes will take place on December 3. A total of 51 assembly seats in the state are unreserved and 29 seats are reserved for the Scheduled Tribe category and 10 seats for the Scheduled Caste category.
It is noteworthy that 76.88 percent voting took place in the 2018 assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, in which 1,42,90,497 out of total 1,85,88,520 voters exercised their franchise. NOTA had got 2,82,738 votes. Whereas, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, more than 1.96 lakh NOTA votes were cast in the state, which has 11 parliamentary seats. Then NOTA stood third in five parliamentary constituencies – Bastar, Surguja, Kanker, Mahasamund and Rajnandgaon.