75K voters opted with NOTA in Thane district

More than 75,000 people in Thane district have opted for none of the above (NOTA) in the Assembly polls. Compared to the 2014 Assembly polls, more than 32,000 additional

More than 75,000 people in Thane district have opted for none of the above (NOTA) in the Assembly polls. Compared to the 2014 Assembly polls, more than 32,000 additional voters opted for NOTA this time. Experts feel that expected results in most parts of the district and loss of faith in the system are the prime reasons for increase in NOTA votes.

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As per the district election commission record, 75,417 voters have opted for NOTA, which means around 2.46% of voters have chosen NOTA.

A district officer said, “The largest number of NOTA votes are from Murbad constituency where BJP candidate Kisan Kathore won by a huge margin of 1.32 lakh votes. A total of 6,783 voters opted for NOTA. NOTA was also the popular choice of 6,092 voters in Kalyan Rural and 6,054 voters in Ovala Majiwada. In Airoli, 5,213 voters opted for NOTA.”

Almost 5% voters in Ulhasnagar which is 4,978 voters too pressed NOTA button.

Pradeep Indulkar, an activist from JAAG, said, “NOTA votes clearly indicate that there is lot of frustration and disappointment among voters. Five years ago, the government got full majority but residents are not happy with the work. The problems still are unresolved. Moreover, with no promising candidate pitted against the sitting MLAs was also another reason for rise in NOTA votes.”

The lack of competition too led to an increase in NOTA.

A voter said, “Most constituencies had the sitting MLA contesting and winning elections for the past two decades. The opposition is also not interested in fielding a strong candidate against them. So, the voters have no choice as they are not happy with the sitting MLA and that there is no option.

Postal ballot

More than 90% police personnel in Thane police commissionerate voted through postal ballot in Assembly election. The police department claimed that despite the less time available for sending postal ballots, the voting percent is good.

As per the data submitted by the police department, out of the 9,284 police personnel, 9,212 filled the postal ballot form. Around 8,563 postal ballots were also send to the election commission. So, around 92.12 % police on bandobast duty could cast their vote.

Sukhada Narkar, public relations officer of Thane police commissionerate, said, “The police are busy in security and patrolling duty during elections and are unable to cast their vote. Every year, they vote through postal ballot paper. This election, the time from filing of nomination to counting was less. It was a challenge reaching out to all the police employees to ensure they vote through a postal ballot. We had set up a postal ballot unit in each of the police stations under Thane police commissionerate.”

A training on how to vote through postal ballot was held on September 18. The police whose name were not on the voter’s list were also told to fill Form 6. Narkar added that the entire commissionerate recorded a voting percent of 92.12 %.