During the general elections and state assembly elections in the country in the last five years, about 1.29 crore voters have opted for ‘NOTA’. The non-governmental organization ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’ (ADR) gave this information on Thursday. ADR and National Election Watch (NEW) analyzed the number of votes cast under the ‘NOTA’ (none of the above) option in various elections during 2018 to 2022. According to the report, an average of 64,53,652 votes were cast under NOTA in the state assembly elections during this period.

At the same time, in the Lok Sabha elections, the maximum number of 51,660 voters opted for NOTA in Gopalganj seat of Bihar, while the least 100 voters pressed the NOTA button in the Lakshadweep Lok Sabha seat.

According to the report, during the assembly elections in 2020, the highest 1.46 percent voters in two states opted for NOTA, in which 7,06,252 in Bihar assembly elections and 43,108 voters in Delhi pressed the NOTA button. According to this, in the assembly elections of five states in 2022, the least number of people opted for NOTA. Of these, 0.70 percent voters opted for NOTA, in which 10,629 voters in Goa, 10,349 in Manipur, 1,10,308 in Punjab, 6,37,304 in Uttar Pradesh and 46,840 in Uttarakhand pressed the NOTA button in EVMs.

According to the report, the maximum number of 7,42,134 voters opted for NOTA during the Maharashtra Assembly elections in 2019. At the same time, the lowest 2,917 votes were cast under NOTA during the 2018 Mizoram Assembly elections. According to this, in the Chhattisgarh state assembly elections in 2018, the maximum number of voters opted for NOTA, which was 1.98 percent.

At the same time, the lowest percentage i.e. 0.46 percent voters pressed the NOTA button under NOTA in Delhi Assembly Elections, 2020 and Mizoram Assembly Elections, 2018. According to the ADR, during the 2018 assembly elections till now, 26,77,616 voters opted for NOTA in seats where criminal cases were pending against three or more contesting candidates.