More than 10 years after a Supreme Court judgment paved way for introduction of the NOTA button on EVM for polls, the number of voters choosing it still remains low, with the experts dubbing it as a “toothless tiger” with no implications on the results.

According to a report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the share of MPs with declared criminal cases against them has been increasing in the last decade.

“NOTA has made no difference as far as criminality is concerned, in fact the number of candidates with criminal cases has increased,” Major General (retd) Anil Verma, Head of ADR, said.

Axis India chairman Pradeep Gupta said there was a requirement to give more teeth to the NOTA option.