Petition by a Delhi legal think tank wants SC to declare Section 53(2) of RP Act, 1951 unconstitutional. It says the provision defeats the right to cast a neutral or negative vote.
As per an analysis of EC data, out of the total 100 candidates, 68 have secured fewer votes than NOTA. The maximum 12,938 NOTA votes were polled in the Udhampur constituency.
Acting on Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay’s plea, SC has issued notices to Centre & EC, seven years after it introduced the NOTA button as a ‘basic right’ of voters.
The plea also sought a direction to the Election Commission to restrict those candidates and political parties, whose election has been nullified, from taking part in fresh polls.
BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay also seeks directions that candidates who participate in such an invalidated election be barred from contesting a second time.
RJD, once a prominent representative of Mandal politics, now finds itself in a political era where welfare, good governance, and new aspirations are overshadowing old caste equations.
Without a Congress revival, there can be no challenge to the BJP pan-nationally. Modi’s party is growing, and almost entirely at the cost of the Congress.
COMMENTS