Were voters pushed to NOTA by Naxals?

The voting figures available after the Lok Sabha elections show that there was a wide use of "None of the above" (NOTA) option in most of the Naxal-affected Lok Sabha constituencies like Adilabad in Andhra Pradesh, Gadchiroli in Maharahtra and, Baster and Kanker in Chhattisgarh.

The rampant use of NOTA suggests that Naxals may have encouraged voters to click the button, considering that they had also called for a boycott of polls.

17,084 voters exercised NOTA in Adilabad, Gadchiroli saw 24,448 voters choosing NOTA while the number stood at 38,772 in Basttar in Chhattisgarh. Also, 32,384 voters pressed the last button Rajnandgaon. In Gadchiroli-Chimur, and the use of NOTA was highest in Aheri assembly constituency at 7,544.

Ravindra Kadam, IG police from Gadchiroli said that the Naxal role behind the extensive use of NOTA cannot be ruled out. “We need to closely scrutinize the booth-wise voting pattern before coming to any consclusion,” he said, adding that it was likely the Naxals prompted the villagers in their meetings to go in for the the last button in the EVM if they thought the candidates had not done justice to them or visited their hamlets.

“Though there is no evidence at present to show that NOTA was used due to Naxal threat, we need to look into the possibility,” Rajnandgaon SP Sanjeev Shukla said.