Since making its electoral debut in 2013, ‘none of the above’ (NOTA) has secured 1.33 crore votes in State assembly and Lok Sabha elections, reveals an analysis from 2013 to 2017 by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
In the last five years, on an average, NOTA has secured 2.7 lakh votes in State assembly elections.
When NOTA was introduced in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, it secured 60 lakh votes, or 1.08% of the total votes polled. Nilgiris constituency in Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of NOTA votes with 46,559 votes while the lowest at 123 votes was polled in Lakshdweep.
Among the elections to State assemblies, NOTA secured the highest percentage of votes in 2015 at 2.08% in the elections in Bihar and Delhi.
The lowest percentage of NOTA votes at 0.91% votes was polled in 2014 when Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha and Sikkim went to polls.
Interestingly, in elections to assemblies, NOTA has secured 22.94 lakh votes in ‘Red Alert’ constituencies (those having three or more candidates facing criminal cases in the fray).
