What if NOTA gets more votes?

NOTA means "None of the Above" option which enables the voter to officially register a vote of rejection for all candidates who are contesting. If a voter chooses to press NOTA on the EVM, it indicates that the voter has not chosen to vote for any party.

On 27 September 2013, the Supreme court of India ruled that the right to register a "none of the above" vote in elections should apply, while ordering the Election Commission of India (ECI) to provide a button for the same in the electronic voting machines.

The ECI while introducing NOTA indicated that although votes cast as NOTA are counted, they are invalid votes so they will not impact the result of the election process. Therefore, whether NOTA gets more or less votes, it is not taken into account for calculating the total valid votes.


The ECI introduced a particular symbol for ‘None of the Above’ option to allow the voters to exercise NOTA. This symbol appears in the last panel on all Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

The main objective of the ‘NOTA’ option is to enable electors who do not wish to vote for any of the candidates to exercise their right to reject without violation of the secrecy of their decision. The voter must be eligible to register a vote of rejection if they feel that the contesting candidates do not deserve to be voted for. The Right to vote granted to all citizens must allow the vote of disapproval.

Before the introduction of EVMs, when voting was done through ballot papers, voters had the choice to put the ballot paper without marking against any candidate thus rejecting all candidates. This vote was counted as NOTA. All contesting candidates for a constituency had the option of filing Form 49-O at a voting booth but this compromised the secrecy of the ballot.

Once the EVM's were introduced, there was no need to file Form 49-O anymore and take permission from the presiding officer.