According to media reports, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has geared up to fight the NOTA campaign in 2019 elections. RSS is likely to start a door to door campaign to urge people to not vote in the favour of ‘none of the above’ (NOTA). This comes as a follow up to Sarsanghchalak, Mohan Bhagwat’s statement in which he said that NOTA goes against the national interest in October last year.
The results of the recent assembly elections in 5 states especially of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have left the Political Pundits in shock. Rising questions on the credibility of the exit polls, the results of the Hindi heartland left political commentators with a ton of explanations to do. In both the states, Congress ended up being the single largest party. Although Bharatiya Janata Party did not get the mandate in these states, the difference between the vote share of BJP and the Congress is minimal. The difference of vote share between Congress and BJP was 0.2 percent in Rajasthan and 0.1 percent in Madhya Pradesh. Also, a large number of voters opted NOTA over voting for any political party, which surfaces as a major reason behind saffron party’s defeat.
Interestingly, in Madhya Pradesh, the difference between BJP and the Congress is of 5 seats. As a matter of fact, there are in total 11 seats in MP where BJP’s margin of defeat is less than that of NOTA’s vote share. Around 1.5 percent of the total voters went for the ‘none of the above’ in Madhya Pradesh. It is clear that anti-BJP forces were successfully able to ensure a number of voters switching over to NOTA who would have otherwise voted for the BJP.
In Rajasthan elections, around 15 constituencies witnessed more votes in the favor of NOTA than the margin of victory of winning candidates. One common fact in these two states, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, is the abrupt surge in the percentage of NOTA votes. It would not be pragmatic to argue that all the NOTA votes would have gone in BJP’s favor. However, it is clear from the recent social media trends that a vast majority of those supporting NOTA as a voting option were disillusioned BJP supporters.
Moreover, in Gujarat elections held in 2017, which BJP won, the NOTA voters were substantially high. There were around 21 seats in which NOTA’s vote share was more than that of the vote margins between the top two candidates. Interestingly, on 12 seats out of 21, BJP lost by a smaller margin than votes polled in the favour of ‘none of the above’.
A few days back, the RSS had also organized a four-day session in Chennai, which also included the BJP and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). The meet was organized to discuss at various aspects and strategies of the all the units of Sangh Parivar, prior to the Lok Sabha election. The meeting was aimed at helping individuals to carry out their respective “nationalistic goals.”
Also Read: NOTA Might be a Fancy Concept but is actually Useless
Coming back to the issue of ‘none of the above’, various surveys and reports have claimed that NOTA is merely a way to reject with votes going useless. Considering that NOTA is at best a useless concept and at worst, undermines democracy, there is a need for a sustained campaign against this very concept.
RSS’s decision of campaigning against NOTA will make the mass aware of the uselessness of it. With the large cadre base that RSS commands, it has the capacity to effectively counter the NOTA propaganda on social media and on the ground as well.
