NOTA (None of the above) option, which gained popularity among the Indian electorate, has been on a steady decline since 2023, a businessline analysis of NOTA votes in key State and General Elections shows.

Lok Sabha elections have witnessed a consistent decline in NOTA votes over the past decade. In its debut year of 2014, NOTA votes as a percentage of total votes polled stood at 1.07 per cent. It has dropped to 1.05 per cent in 2019 and further to 0.98 per cent in 2024. The number of constituencies with NOTA vote share above 2 per cent also steadily declined across the last three Lok Sabha polls — from 59 in 2014 to 40 in 2019, and further down to 38 in 2024. Constituencies in Bihar, Jharkhand and Gujarat have clocked high NOTA vote share across all three polls.

In contrast, the State Assembly Elections depict more localised trends. NOTA’s vote share grew in major Assembly Elections in 2022 and 2023, but since the Karnataka Assembly polls in May 2023, it has been on a decline.

In the 2022 Gujarat Assembly polls, NOTA votes as a percentage of total votes polled surged to 1.57 per cent from 0.23 percent in the corresponding polls in 2017. Similarly, in Uttar Pradesh, it jumped from 0.20 per cent in 2017 to 0.69 per cent in 2022. The NOTA votes in Punjab’s 2022 polls remained flat from previous elections. In the major State elections of 2023, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan saw a decline, while Karnataka registered a marginal rise.

Experts note that, this decline might be attributed to political parties presenting more relatable choices and voters too realise that NOTA lacks real impact.

Yashwant Deshmukh, Founder-Director of C-Voter, attributes the decline to a lack of legal standing for NOTA votes and calls for reforms to give it real power. “If NOTA becomes the winner or runner-up, the elections should be declared null and void, and candidates on the ballot should be barred from contesting in the next cycle of elections. This would reflect the electorate’s mistrust of the candidates,” he said. Unless NOTA has a binding effect on the elections, the electorate will not see it as a meaningful option and it is just a waste of a vote, Deshmukh added.

As for State-specific differences in NOTA, Sajjan Kumar, independent political analyst, explains that factors for voting NOTA is not just State-specific, but also constituency-specific. In 2022, the BJP may have won in Gujarat and UP elections but it is likely that people of those States did not relate to the candidates and overall political environment, he added.

For instance, in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the impact of NOTA was particularly striking in the Indore constituency. BJP’s Shankar Lakhwani won the seat with a margin of 11.72 lakh votes with NOTA as runner-up. The Congress candidate dropped out and joined the BJP mid-campaign and NOTA garnered over 2 lakh votes, reflecting a significant portion of the electorate’s dissatisfaction with the given choices.

(The writer is an intern with businessline)

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