For urban middle class India, the forthcoming elections - the assemblies, followed by the big one, the Lok Sabha polls, scheduled before Summer 2014 - have suddenly become a touch more interesting. There's a renewed chatter on social media and on college and university campuses, as many make up their mind to exercise their franchise for the first time, NOTA (or 'none of the above') button in the EVM being the reason to shed this ostensible indifference.

Not for Samardha, though. For most people of in this nondescript village some 20 kilometres from Bhopal, elections are still a simple affair: it’s about political parties. Candidates fielded by the parties hardly make any difference.

So, the much-discussed NOTA option, made valid by supreme court in September and which has created a rage in urban areas, has failed to generate any enthusiasm among the villagers. In fact, only a handful among the 2,000-odd people here even know that such an option now exists.

“Apan toh party dekh ke hi vote daalte hau, neta chahe koi bhi hau (I vote for the party, no matter who the candidate is),” says Kishori Devi, 60, who runs a small shop selling gutkhas, tobacco and cigarettes in the village. Though she uses the singular expression ‘I’, she might as well have been talking on behalf of most people here, especially the women, whose count exceeds 900.

Hardly any woman here knows her leaders and can only identify the two major party symbols: the BJP’s lotus and the Congress party’s hand.

Ask anyone about NOTA and the response is a puzzled look: “Apan iske barey mein nahi jaante (We don’t know what this is)” is the standard response.

Posters, billboards and banners spreading awareness about the new option are completely absent in and around this area. And those who know about the option hardly discuss it. “What is the point of NOTA when someone or the other is bound to win even if he/she gets the second highest number of votes after NOTA? Apna vote aise barbaad karne ka kya faayda? (What is the point of wasting one’s vote this way),” asks Bimla Bai, 45.

There are only a handful of leaders whom Bimla Bai and many others identify. For them, thus, comparing individual candidates on the basis of their own merits is not possible. “There is our chief minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, then there is Sonia Gandhi and then there is another leader who wears a turban and jacket,” says Bimla, referring to prime minister Manmohan Singh with her last description.

Unlike thousands of “well-educated” urban Indians, for many of whom NOTA would mark their debut in exercising their franchise, it is not an option for people in the Samardha polling booth, which covers the village and four other colonies: Krishnapuram, Radhapuram, Shubhalay and Liberty.

“There is nothing great about the NOTA option,” says Kamlesh, 42, who lives in Krishnapuram and works as a machine operator at a nearby candy factory. “Only a few will press the new NOTA button. Kisi bhi jagah party ki lehar chalti hao (The party influences voters, and not individuals, in most places).”

The right to reject button has failed to excite 28-year-old Ramesh, a resident of Krishnapuram, who has never exercised his franchise and does not plan on doing it even in the future – NOTA or no NOTA. “All our politicians will certainly not become saints with the introduction of this new option. Even if the majority goes and presses the NOTA button, which is very unlikely, somebody or the other will have to form the government at the end of the day. And after coming to power, these leaders will go back to becoming indifferent towards our problems,” he says, justifying his stance for not voting.

With the election commission finalising the design of the new button, the officials in Madhya Pradesh have begun training of booth-level officers to spread awareness about the new button. While NOTA seems to have become a complete sell-out for the young urban voters, whether or not their rural counterparts will join in pressing the pink button will be interesting to watch.

For voters in Samardha, however, it is going to be business as usual. On November 25, they will vote to bring a party to power. For them, the colour of the flags matters little.