Bihar Assembly speaker questions relevance of NOTA in direct elections

PATNA: Bihar Legislative Assembly Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary has questioned the relevance of NOTA (None Of The Above) ballot option and urged the Election Commission (EC) to do away it in direct elections because it encourages voters to go for rejection instead of the election of candidates.

In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora written on Sunday, Choudhary welcomed the Supreme Courts judgement doing away with the NOTA in indirect elections such as Rajya Sabha and the state legislative council polls.

Choudhary wrote to EC after the poll panel informed the assembly secretariat about the apex court's judgement doing away with the NOTA in indirect elections.

While welcoming the scs judgement, the speaker favoured elimination of NOTA choice to voters in direct elections saying that how can NOTA be justified in direct elections if it is not held to be relevant in indirect elections.

It has been around six years of NOTA system which is implemented after the apex courts 2013 judgement through which voters were given the option to reject their candidates, he said adding that only two per cent voters have used this ballot option during several state assembly and Lok Sabha elections since its implementation.

Stating that NOTA does not seem to be relevant even in direct elections, Choudhary said that The idea behind holding an election is to elect someone.

Rejecting all candidates and electing none cannot be the objective of the election process.

The speaker urged the EC to bring the issue of removal of NOTA in direct elections before the supreme court.