New Delhi: The battle against including the NOTA (none of the above) option in the Gujarat Rajya Sabha (RS) polls gathered steam on Wednesday with both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coming out against it.
While the Congress party approached the Supreme Court on Wednesday seeking an urgent hearing on the matter, the BJP asked the Election Commission (EC) for the withdrawal of the NOTA option from the 8 August elections.
The apex court agreed to hear the challenge by the Gujarat Congress against using the option of NOTA in the RS polls in Gujarat.
The matter was mentioned before a bench comprising justices Dipak Misra, Amitava Roy and A.M. Khanwilkar by senior counsel and Congress leader Kapil Sibal who sought an urgent hearing on the grounds that there was no statutory provision for the NOTA option in the ballot paper for these elections.
The NOTA option for RS polls was introduced in 2014 but has become controversial in Gujarat because it is for the first time in two decades that a contest will take place for the polls. At stake is Congress’ prestige contest for the re-election of senior party leader Ahmed Patel to the upper house.
A day after Congress approached the EC over the issue, the BJP followed suit on Wednesday when its senior leaders submitted a memorandum to the poll watchdog seeking the removal of the NOTA option in the RS polls.
“It is submitted that use of NOTA in the upcoming poll has become an issue of debate among the political parties and therefore, a proper consensus should be made before the use of NOTA in election in Rajya Sabha,” the BJP said in its memorandum.
The EC on its part has said that it is following the order of the Supreme Court given in 2013 which said that the NOTA option should be provided on ballot papers and electronic voting machines.
An EC official said that in January 2014, it had issued formal directions that the provision of NOTA will be applicable in RS elections.
According to data by the EC, since January 2014, NOTA has been used in a total of 25 such seats where a contest took place in an RS election.
