Nearly 4.67 lakh voters opted for None of the Above (NOTA) while exercising their franchise in the 2024 Lok Sabha election in Tamil Nadu, marking the reversal of a declining trend in previous elections.
Following the intervention of the Supreme Court in a writ petition filed by the People’s Union For Civil Liberties in 2013, the Election Commission of India introduced NOTA as an option in electronic voting machines for voters to register their discontent with the candidates in the fray. However, the votes polled by NOTA do not impact the results. In the first-past-the-post system, the candidate who receives the highest number of votes is declared the winner.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, nearly 4.67 lakh voters opted for NOTA. In Sriperumbudur, a total of 26,450 voters chose NOTA, the highest in the State, followed by Dindigul (22,120) and Thiruvallur (SC) (18,978). The number of votes polled by NOTA was lowest in Kanniyakumari (3,756), Ramanathapuram (6,295) and Cuddalore (7,292). NOTA received more than 1% of the votes in 19 seats.
In the 2014 election, when NOTA was introduced, nearly 5.7 lakh voters chose the option in Tamil Nadu. However, in subsequent Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the number of voters choosing NOTA witnessed a gradual reduction. Only 3.45 lakh voters chose the option in the 2021 Assembly election. Surprisingly, the 2024 election saw a reversal of the declining trend, as NOTA polled 1.07% as against 0.75% in 2021.
“NOTA is a serious indicator. Voters exercise their franchise consciously to reject the contestants,” said academician G. Palanithurai. According to him, the reversal of the declining trend was a clear indication of a pitched battle. “There was a lack of decency and decorum in the whole electioneering process. Politicians, irrespective of the party, used vituperative language throughout the campaign to target each other, which led to a sense of dejection among voters, particularly in urban areas,” he said.
The earlier declining trend of votes polled by NOTA might have been due to a political wave in favour of, or against, a particular party or leader, he said.
