Voting in elections is every citizen’s right, but voting for the right candidate is more important. And if there is no eligible candidate then NOTA is the choice to go. Let’s understand what is NOTA option in Indian elections.
None Of The Above or NOTA is an option that allows the voters to express their disapproval of all the running candidates. It signifies that the voter has chosen not to support any political party.
NOTA was introduced in 2013 when the Supreme Court of India declared that Indian voters should have the right to reject candidates. Thus, the NOTA option was introduced in the EVM machines.
The reason behind introducing the NOTA option was to make political parties responsible for nominating only eligible candidates.
Introducing NOTA encourages people to exercise their democratic rights and go out to vote and express their disapproval of wrong candidates.
Voters can cast a NOTA vote by pressing the NOTA symbol button present at the bottom of candidate lists in EVM (Electronic Voting Machine).