Data: NOTA Vote share is 0.7% in the five state Assembly Elections, the lowest in a year since its introduction in 2013
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 14, 2022
NOTA was introduced as an option on the ballot paper in 2013 while a dedicated symbol on the EVM came in 2015. However, NOTA vote share has been on a continuous decline over the years. In the recently concluded assembly elections to five states, NOTA polled 0.7% of the vote, the lowest in a year since its introduction in 2013.
The results for the recently held Assembly General Elections in 5 States – Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa & Manipur were declared on 10 March 2022. The elections were conducted during February & March 2022. The incumbent parties/alliances in four of the states managed to retain power, while in Punjab, the AAP stormed to power winning more than 80% of the seats.
The previous assembly general elections for all these states were conducted in 2017. Hence, this is the second time that assembly elections were held in these states after NOTA (None of the Above) option was introduced in 2013 on the ballot paper and a dedicated symbol on the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) was put in place in 2015.
As noted in many of our earlier stories, NOTA as a preferred choice is finding favour with fewer voters with every passing year. The vote share for NOTA has consistently declined over the years, possibly because of the reason that votes for NOTA would not lead to any change in the results.
NOTA vote share crossed the 2% mark only in the elections held in the year 2015. Since then, there has been a consistent decline in the vote share for NOTA. NOTA polled just about 0.7% of the votes in the recently concluded assembly general elections to the five states in 2022. This is the lowest in any year since the introduction of NOTA in 2013.
In this story, we analyse the trends in NOTA vote share in 2017 & 2022 across these five States.
Details of the performance of NOTA across the elections can be viewed on Factly’s comprehensive Dashboard on NOTA – NOTA and Numbers.
Share of NOTA in 2022 fell in 3 out of 5 States compared to the 2017 assembly elections
Among the five states for which Assembly elections were concluded recently, there is a slight increase in the share of votes polled for NOTA in Punjab & Manipur compared to the 2017 elections in these states.
NOTA share did not cross 3% in any of the seats across five states
In 2017, there was one constituency in UP where NOTA polled more than 3% of the votes.  This was the ST-reserved seat of Duddhi, where NOTA polled 4.3%. In 2022, though the seat still has the highest share of NOTA share in the state, it fell to 2.3%.
Strangely, there was not a single assembly constituency across the five states where NOTA polled more than 3% of the votes.
SC & ST reserved seats continue to poll more votes for NOTA
One of the consistent trends in NOTA vote share across various State Assembly & Lok Sabha general elections since 2013 is that the SC & ST reserved seats have a higher share of NOTA votes compared to the General category seats.
In 22 Seats of UP, NOTA polled more votes than the victory margin
While the overall share of votes polled for NOTA has reduced in 2022 compared to 2017, NOTA was crucial in 34 constituencies across the five states where there was a close context. In these 34 constituencies, NOTA polled more than the victory margin. In 2017, there were only 26 such constituencies.
This is more prominent in the case of Uttar Pradesh. In 22 constituencies, NOTA polled more votes than victory margin in the 2022 elections while there were 14 such constituencies in 2017.  Goa has five such constituencies in 2022 while 3 such constituencies were in Uttarakhand and 2 constituencies each in Punjab & Manipur.
Among these seats, Jirbam in Manipur polled 2.17% for NOTA i.e., 579 votes, while the victory margin was 416 votes. In Uttarakhand’s Dwarahat, where there was a very close contest with a victory margin of 182 votes, NOTA polled 791 votes i.e., 1.6% of the total votes.
The constituencies of Shrawasti & Manikpur in UP polled 1.26% and 1.6% NOTA votes. The votes for NOTA were comparatively higher than the victory margin. In the case of Manikpur, NOTA received 3,325 votes, while the victory margin was 1048 votes. Though the overall interest in NOTA is declining as a preferred choice for voters, these votes are proving to be crucial in certain constituencies.