The Big Picture : Nota & Option of Re-Election

Eight years after giving voters the option to use NOTA – that’s None of The Above option in the elections, the Supreme Court has now sought responses from the Centre and the Election Commission of India on whether it would be legally permissible to reject all candidates in the fray if NOTA votes exceeded that of the candidate securing the highest number of votes. The top court was hearing a plea filed by advocate and BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, that seeks to direct the poll panel to nullify an election result and conduct a fresh poll if the maximum votes are for None of the above in a particular constituency. The petition says that the right to reject and elect a new candidate will give power to the people to express their discontent. If voters are dissatisfied with the background or performance of contesting candidates, they will opt for NOTA to reject such candidate and elect a new one. The contesting candidates rejected in the nullified elections, shall not be allowed to participate in the fresh election. This, the petitioner, contends, will help check the steadily rising percentage of candidates with criminal antecedents and their chances of winning. Although, while hearing the plea on Monday, CJI Bobde said that in our electoral system, such a move would be counter-productive. Many seats in Parliament and assemblies could go vacant and constituencies would go unrepresented for a long time. On The Big Picture today, we will discuss with experts the significance of NOTA, should it be given more teeth so as to ensure that political parties be more responsible in selecting candidates and if it is to be strengthened, what should be the best way to go about it.

Anchor:- Teena Jha

Producer:- Sagheer Ahmad

Show- The Big Picture

Guest Name:-

1- O. P. Rawat, Former Chief Election Commissioner

2- Desh Ratan Nigam, Advocate Supreme Court