Illegal to campaign for NOTA, says Maharashtra chief electoral officer

It is illegal....If someone is promoting or campaigning for NOTA ahead of Andheri East by-poll and if we receive a complaint, the Election Commission of India will look into it, said Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra Shreekant Deshpande.He was responding to a reporters question about Parabs allegations.Deshpande also said that the new guidelines of the ECI enable registration as a voter of a person who turns 18 in a given year in January, April, July or October.

It is illegal to campaign for `None Of The Above' (NOTA) option in an election, a senior official said here on Wednesday on the eve of the Andheri (East) Assembly byelection.

Anil Parab, a leader of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction, had alleged a day before that some rivals of the party's candidate in the byelection, Rutuja Latke, were asking voters to press the NOTA button. “It is illegal....If someone is promoting or campaigning for NOTA ahead of Andheri East by-poll and if we receive a complaint, the Election Commission of India will look into it,'' said Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra Shreekant Deshpande.

He was responding to a reporter's question about Parab's allegations.

Deshpande also said that the new guidelines of the ECI enable registration as a voter of a person who turns 18 in a given year in January, April, July or October. Earlier, if a person turned 18 after January 1, he or she could not register as a voter in the same year. “To increase the number of voters and also that of women voters, the commission has decided to hold special camps in colleges. The state's gender ratio is 925 women per 1,000 men but in voters' list it is 914 to 1,000,” he said.