Srinagar: The None of the Above Option (NOTA) option available on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have not gone unnoticed in Kashmir as over 25000 people have pressed this button in Lok Sabah elections this year.
According to reports received by KNS, out of 25000, over 14000 voters in Kashmir valley have pressed this button. While as 11000 people have used this option in rests of the state. 5000 people pressed NOTA option on EMS in Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency while as 4789 people used this button while exercising their franchise in Srinagar Lok Sabah constituency. In Baramulla parliamentary constituency, 3741 voters used NOTA to express their electoral opinion. In Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency, 10,477 people pressed NOTA button and in Jammu 4383 voters used this button to express their decision. The much hyped that was introduced in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) turned out to be a flop show in Kashmir as the people here seem least interested in pressing that ‘strange’ button.
Pertinently, senior Congress leader and Medical Education Minister Taj Mohi-ud-Din had said the move should not be introduced in the State as the same could strengthen the separatist elements here at large. “Government of India (GoI) should move the Supreme Court to prevent the implementation of NOTA in disturbed areas like Jammu and Kashmir and North-East,” Taj had stated at a function here. He had also written a letter to the Prime Minister and the Congress high command that the option of NOTA should not be applicable in Jammu and Kashmir, as it would be used by separatists in anti-election campaign. (KNS)