NOTA chance

That Election Commission officials have a fine sense of politics was amply demonstrated at a media preview on Sunday of the paper audit trail attached to the electronic voter machines (EVMs). These upgraded EVMs will be piloted in some constituencies of Delhi and Mizoram in the Assembly elections. The machine on display had also been upgraded with the controversial None of the Above (NOTA) option, which was introduced on the Commission's recommendations and has been strongly opposed almost across the political spectrum. Perhaps that is why the official who good-naturedly agreed to be photographed with the EVM promptly and emphatically declined to place his finger above the NOTA option.