The Supreme Court has refused to stay the NOTA option in the Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls in a major setback to Congress. The apex court asked the state Congress why it was so late in raising the question of NOTA as the Election Commission had issued the notification in January 2014. The court, however, agreed to examine the Constitutional validity of the EC's notification to give an option of NOTA in elections.
The Gujarat Congress, on 2 August, moved the Supreme Court against the EC's decision to introduce NOTA in the Rajya Sabha polls.
The introduction of NOTA is an issue of contention in the Gujarat Congress as it is bound to split the votes in an election that is already slipping away from the party’s grasp.
As per government officials, the directions to use NOTA in Rajya Sabha elections were enforced in January 2014 after the Supreme Court in 2013 made it mandatory to have NOTA option in EVMs.
On 1 August, Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel had kicked up a row after he questioned the Election Commission's decision to introduce NOTA in the Gujarat Rajya Sabha elections, in which he is one of the candidates, alleging that it was done "post notification".
However, the poll panel maintained that use of None of The Above (NOTA) in Rajya Sabha polls was not a new move as it was introduced in 2014 after the Supreme Court in 2013 made it mandatory to have the NOTA option in EVMs.
Patel, the high-profile political secretary to party president Sonia Gandhi, also questioned the deferring of the Rajya Sabha elections by the poll panel earlier.
"First Rajya Sabha election was postponed. Second NOTA was permitted post notification. Reasons best known to the Election Commission," Patel posted on Twitter, a day after the election authorities announced that NOTA option can be used for Rajya Sabha polls.
The EC had earlier declared that RS polls for 10 seats in Gujarat, Goa and West Bengal will be held on 8 June. However, on 22 May, it announced postponement of the polls which were later rescheduled for 8 August.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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