Election 2019: How (In) Effective Is NOTA

India introduced NOTA in 2013, joining the ranks of countries like Russia, Greece, Ukraine, Spain, Belarus and Bangladesh. It was used in the Lok Sabha election for the first time in 2014 and was 1.1 percent of the total ballots cast. While that hasn’t resulted in a re-election yet, here’s a list of five constituencies where it played a major role in deciding the winner.

The winners in all these constituencies led with a margin of less than 10,000 ballots and the number of voters choosing ‘None of the Above’ option was higher than the victory margin. Another assumption is that voters would have cast their ballots for the runner-up in case they did not have the NOTA option.

Nabrangpur (Odisha):

• Winner: Balbhadra Majhi (Biju Janata Dal)
• Runner-Up: Pradeep Kumar Majhi (Indian National Congress)
• Margin of Victory: 2,042
• Votes Polled by NOTA: 44,408

Raigad (Maharashtra):

• Winner: Anant Geete (Shiv Sena)
• Runner-Up: Sunil Tatkare (Nationalist Congress Party)
• Margin of Victory: 2,110
• Votes Polled by NOTA: 20,362

Mahasamund (Chhattisgarh):

• Winner: Chandulal Sahu (Bharatiya Janata Party)
• Runner-Up: Ajit Jogi (Indian National Congress)
• Margin of Victory: 1,217
• Votes Polled by NOTA: 9,955

Raiganj (West Bengal)

• Winner: Mohammad Salim (CPM)
• Runner-Up: Deepa Dasmunsi (Indian National Congress)
• Margin of Victory: 1,634
• Votes Polled by NOTA: 10,929

Samastipur (Bihar)

• Winner: Ram Chandra Paswan (Lok Janshakti Party)
• Runner-Up: Ashok Kumar (Indian National Congress)
• Margin of Victory: 6,872
• Votes Polled by NOTA: 29,211

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