This is the first general election when the NOTA, or None of The Above Option, has been introduced in voting machines. Even if NOTA gets more votes than any candidate, the election won't stand cancelled. Voting NOTA is as good as not going to the booth. Why then would anyone walk to the polling booth, stand in a queue to vote for no one? Despite this, individuals and groups of all kinds across India, have threatened to vote NOTA as a form of protest. NOTA thus has the power to become a tool for people to make politicians focus on their most pressing demands. Here are some instances of how voters are using NOTA.
In Vadodara in Gujarat, one of the two seats the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate is contesting, some activists are urging people to vote NOTA. Rejecting the "development models" of both Modi and Manmohan, they say that voting NOTA “is not not negative voting, but a positive vote for a step towards equitable development, against corruption, casteism, communalism, deceptive development as well as use of money and muscle power in polls”.
Official Election Commission video about NOTA for Gujarati-speaking voters.
*Telugu actor Sai Kiran was so concerned to see people unaware of the NOTA option that he's made a short YouTube film about it. Called “Fataaaaack,” the film shows a woman TV journalist slapping a male politician.
*In the Mulund and Thane areas of Mumbai, many residents are going to vote NOTA because their parliamentarian – whose job is to help make laws – never took up the issue of a dumping ground that causes air pollution.
*Also in Thane, a Muslim group asked voters to vote NOTA rather than for “secular” parties which have “used” Muslim voters “for 60 years as a vote-bank.” The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind issued a list of “secular” candidates that people should vote for, but in Amravati constituency in Maharashtra they did not find any candidate suitable for the honour. So, they recommed NOTA for Amravati.
*Civic issues seem to be the number one reason why people in most places are using NOTA. In Lucknow, capital of the most important state in the Lok Sabha elections, residents associations are considering NOTA to protest bad roads and poor drainage.
*In Chennai's Erikarai area, people are voting NOTA to get land rights.
*Members of an NGO working with the homeless in Mumbai said thousands of homeless people are considering the NOTA option.
*In Kolkata's famous red light district, Sonagachi, sex workers want to use the NOTA option to make the point that no political party ever listens ton their demands.
*In Pimpri Chinchwad near Pune, 200 families said they'd vote NOTA as their houses are wrongly included in the Red Zone, marked as such because it is next to a defence ammunition dump which prevents them from construction and comes in the way of receiving civic amenities.
*Christians in Bhatkal, Karnataka, are so annoyed that the Congress party isn't even asking for their vote, they are just taking it for granted, that they threatened to vote NOTA.
*People living near the Bokaro Steel Plant in Jharkhand, say they haven't been given electricity and other basic amenities six decades after they lost their homes to the steel plant. They will use the NOTA option to make themselves heard.
*In Coimbatore, representatives of industry and trade threaten NOTA because their factories don't have enough electricity to run on.
*In Borivali in Mumbai, people living in housing colonies are threatening to vote NOTA to get rid of the 'squatting' slum dwellers.
*It's the opposite in Kolkata, where 300 families evicted from their homes in a slum to make way for a flyover, said they would vote NOTA to highlight their plight.
*Even in Kolkata's malls, Election Commission officials educating first time voters about the electronic voting machines found the young were particularly interested in the NOTA button.
*Urban areas feel neglected but rural areas feel the urban gets more attention from politicians. So in Karnataka, village communities from across the state met to discuss the NOTA option to get roads and water.
*In the conflict-ridden north-eastern state of Manipur, a group of young people even formed a “NOTA campaign committee” whose Facebook page says, “Uniting likeminded Indigenous Peoples of NE who are against the Pol Parties MPs MLAs Ministers & Candidates depriving the region's Right to Development". NOTA seemed attractive to voters in another conflict-ridden north-eastern state, Nagaland.
*There are two kinds of politicians in Kashmir, one who contest elections, known as “mainstream”, and then there are those who boycott elections because they don't like India. The “mainstream” politicians are worried the NOTA option might become a virtual referendum on the political status of Kashmir vis-a-vis India.
*In Kozhikode in Kerala, 75,000 residents considered voting NOTA to protest acute water shortage. Diversion of river water in southern Karnataka could cause a water shortage, and an NGO wants people to vote NOTA to prevent that.
*In West Bengal, people, even in Maoist strongholds such as Junglemahal, don't listen to the Maoist diktat and vote. So the Maoists are telling them to vote NOTA. However, a Maoist pamphlet found in Junglemahal still tried to persuade people against the idea of NOTA. "NOTA is a brainchild of the ruling class,” it began predictably, “Sensing the rising disenchantment of people on the electoral system, the ruling class has come up with a new option to drag people to the polling booth even if they don't vote for anyone. The purpose is to give validity to a system that is fast losing relevance."
*Having fallen out with his latest political choice, Mamata Banerjee, social activist Anna Hazare is now supporting NOTA.
*One social activist in the newly formed state of Telanga feels the Election Commission ought to make NOTA more attractive by alloting it the donkey as election symbol, because unlike politicians, donkeys don't harm the people.
A YouTube video shows NOTA as a weapon to destroy all evil politicians.
*Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, who believes that regional parties should not be allowed to contest national elections, thinks the Aam Aadmi Party is like the NOTA option with a face. Some voters in Bihar agree with him: they say voting for AAP won't waste the vote, which NOTA would. As if on cue, late comedian Jaspal Bhatti's wife quit the Aam Aadmi Party and floated her own party – the Nota Party. The Chandigarh-based party is the political front of the Nonsense Club, founded by Bhatti. In Delhi, the AAP already has a rebel group, called BAAP, or the Bhartiya Aam Aadmi Party, which urged the people of Delhi to vote NOTA rather than AAP.
*A human rights group in Salem in Tamil Nadu wants 100% voting, now that the excuse that there is nobody worth voting is no longer there. Similarly, an NGO in Mumbai has been persuading people to vote even if it is NOTA, to raise the usually abysmal voter turnout in Mumbai.
*Some political parties urge people to vote NOTA in certain places. The Left parties did not field candidates in 22 seats in Tamil Nadu, and said that their cadres in those seats would support other candidates. If they could not find other suitable candidates, they would urge people to vote NOTA. In Gautam Buddh Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress candidate joined the BJP after the date of filing nominations and withdrawing them was over. So, Congress party workers said they would vote NOTA.
*The NOTA option was first introduced in five state assembly elections in December 2013. The Hindu found that there was a markedly higher percentage of NOTA votes in seats reserved for dalits and adivasis, indicating upper caste angst against such reservations. In Dausa in Rajasthan, some voters say as much openly, explaining that elections have become about parties getting the caste arithmetic right and not real issues.
*NOTA voters might want to get Bollywood actress Kalki Koechlin to be their brand ambassador. She likes the option.
*India's first voter, 97-year-old Shyam Saran Negi, still alive and voting in Himachal Pradesh, doesn't share any of this cynicism. "I am not in favour of NOTA. Surely things are not so bad that there is nobody to vote for among the candidates," he told the BBC.
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In Vadodara in Gujarat, one of the two seats the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate is contesting, some activists are urging people to vote NOTA. Rejecting the "development models" of both Modi and Manmohan, they say that voting NOTA “is not not negative voting, but a positive vote for a step towards equitable development, against corruption, casteism, communalism, deceptive development as well as use of money and muscle power in polls”.
Official Election Commission video about NOTA for Gujarati-speaking voters.
*Telugu actor Sai Kiran was so concerned to see people unaware of the NOTA option that he's made a short YouTube film about it. Called “Fataaaaack,” the film shows a woman TV journalist slapping a male politician.
*In the Mulund and Thane areas of Mumbai, many residents are going to vote NOTA because their parliamentarian – whose job is to help make laws – never took up the issue of a dumping ground that causes air pollution.
*Also in Thane, a Muslim group asked voters to vote NOTA rather than for “secular” parties which have “used” Muslim voters “for 60 years as a vote-bank.” The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind issued a list of “secular” candidates that people should vote for, but in Amravati constituency in Maharashtra they did not find any candidate suitable for the honour. So, they recommed NOTA for Amravati.
*Civic issues seem to be the number one reason why people in most places are using NOTA. In Lucknow, capital of the most important state in the Lok Sabha elections, residents associations are considering NOTA to protest bad roads and poor drainage.
*In Chennai's Erikarai area, people are voting NOTA to get land rights.
*Members of an NGO working with the homeless in Mumbai said thousands of homeless people are considering the NOTA option.
*In Kolkata's famous red light district, Sonagachi, sex workers want to use the NOTA option to make the point that no political party ever listens ton their demands.
*In Pimpri Chinchwad near Pune, 200 families said they'd vote NOTA as their houses are wrongly included in the Red Zone, marked as such because it is next to a defence ammunition dump which prevents them from construction and comes in the way of receiving civic amenities.
*Christians in Bhatkal, Karnataka, are so annoyed that the Congress party isn't even asking for their vote, they are just taking it for granted, that they threatened to vote NOTA.
*People living near the Bokaro Steel Plant in Jharkhand, say they haven't been given electricity and other basic amenities six decades after they lost their homes to the steel plant. They will use the NOTA option to make themselves heard.
*In Coimbatore, representatives of industry and trade threaten NOTA because their factories don't have enough electricity to run on.
*In Borivali in Mumbai, people living in housing colonies are threatening to vote NOTA to get rid of the 'squatting' slum dwellers.
*It's the opposite in Kolkata, where 300 families evicted from their homes in a slum to make way for a flyover, said they would vote NOTA to highlight their plight.
*Even in Kolkata's malls, Election Commission officials educating first time voters about the electronic voting machines found the young were particularly interested in the NOTA button.
*Urban areas feel neglected but rural areas feel the urban gets more attention from politicians. So in Karnataka, village communities from across the state met to discuss the NOTA option to get roads and water.
*In the conflict-ridden north-eastern state of Manipur, a group of young people even formed a “NOTA campaign committee” whose Facebook page says, “Uniting likeminded Indigenous Peoples of NE who are against the Pol Parties MPs MLAs Ministers & Candidates depriving the region's Right to Development". NOTA seemed attractive to voters in another conflict-ridden north-eastern state, Nagaland.
*There are two kinds of politicians in Kashmir, one who contest elections, known as “mainstream”, and then there are those who boycott elections because they don't like India. The “mainstream” politicians are worried the NOTA option might become a virtual referendum on the political status of Kashmir vis-a-vis India.
*In Kozhikode in Kerala, 75,000 residents considered voting NOTA to protest acute water shortage. Diversion of river water in southern Karnataka could cause a water shortage, and an NGO wants people to vote NOTA to prevent that.
*In West Bengal, people, even in Maoist strongholds such as Junglemahal, don't listen to the Maoist diktat and vote. So the Maoists are telling them to vote NOTA. However, a Maoist pamphlet found in Junglemahal still tried to persuade people against the idea of NOTA. "NOTA is a brainchild of the ruling class,” it began predictably, “Sensing the rising disenchantment of people on the electoral system, the ruling class has come up with a new option to drag people to the polling booth even if they don't vote for anyone. The purpose is to give validity to a system that is fast losing relevance."
*Having fallen out with his latest political choice, Mamata Banerjee, social activist Anna Hazare is now supporting NOTA.
*One social activist in the newly formed state of Telanga feels the Election Commission ought to make NOTA more attractive by alloting it the donkey as election symbol, because unlike politicians, donkeys don't harm the people.
A YouTube video shows NOTA as a weapon to destroy all evil politicians.
*Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, who believes that regional parties should not be allowed to contest national elections, thinks the Aam Aadmi Party is like the NOTA option with a face. Some voters in Bihar agree with him: they say voting for AAP won't waste the vote, which NOTA would. As if on cue, late comedian Jaspal Bhatti's wife quit the Aam Aadmi Party and floated her own party – the Nota Party. The Chandigarh-based party is the political front of the Nonsense Club, founded by Bhatti. In Delhi, the AAP already has a rebel group, called BAAP, or the Bhartiya Aam Aadmi Party, which urged the people of Delhi to vote NOTA rather than AAP.
*A human rights group in Salem in Tamil Nadu wants 100% voting, now that the excuse that there is nobody worth voting is no longer there. Similarly, an NGO in Mumbai has been persuading people to vote even if it is NOTA, to raise the usually abysmal voter turnout in Mumbai.
*Some political parties urge people to vote NOTA in certain places. The Left parties did not field candidates in 22 seats in Tamil Nadu, and said that their cadres in those seats would support other candidates. If they could not find other suitable candidates, they would urge people to vote NOTA. In Gautam Buddh Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress candidate joined the BJP after the date of filing nominations and withdrawing them was over. So, Congress party workers said they would vote NOTA.
*The NOTA option was first introduced in five state assembly elections in December 2013. The Hindu found that there was a markedly higher percentage of NOTA votes in seats reserved for dalits and adivasis, indicating upper caste angst against such reservations. In Dausa in Rajasthan, some voters say as much openly, explaining that elections have become about parties getting the caste arithmetic right and not real issues.
*NOTA voters might want to get Bollywood actress Kalki Koechlin to be their brand ambassador. She likes the option.
*India's first voter, 97-year-old Shyam Saran Negi, still alive and voting in Himachal Pradesh, doesn't share any of this cynicism. "I am not in favour of NOTA. Surely things are not so bad that there is nobody to vote for among the candidates," he told the BBC.
