Illegal for any party to ask people to use NOTA after campaign ends: Maha chief electoral officer

It will be illegal for any party or candidate to ask people to use None Of The Above NOTA option after the election campaign ends, a senior poll official said here on Wednesday. If someone complains about any candidate or party asking people to use NOTA after the end of campaign, the Election Commission of India will look into it, Deshpande added.

It will be illegal for any party or candidate to ask people to use `None Of The Above' (NOTA) option after the election campaign ends, a senior poll official said here on Wednesday. Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra Shreekant Deshpande was speaking to reporters here on the eve of the Andheri (East) Assembly byelection in the city.

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. “If a candidate or political party asks people to use NOTA, it will be considered as campaign, and it will be illegal (as campaigning for the bypoll has officially ended),'' Deshpande said when asked about Parab's claims.

''If a third party or individual asks voters to opt for NOTA, it will not be considered a campaign,'' he added. If someone complains about any candidate or party asking people to use NOTA (after the end of campaign), the Election Commission of India will look into it, Deshpande added. The BJP has withdrawn its candidate for the Thursday's byelection which was necessitated after incumbent MLA Ramesh Latke, Rutuja Latke's husband, died.

Deshpande, meanwhile, 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.