Love commandos, a Delhi-based volunteer group that helps lovebirds who marry against wishes of their families and earn their wrath, has called young voters to boycott such candidates in the ongoing assembly polls  who do not support the concept of 'freedom to love'.

The organisation which has rescued and rehabilitated a large number of young people who were on the run from their families after going for inter-faith marriages, has circulated a petition on the social networking sites asking voters to use NOTA (none of the above) button as none of the political parties taking part in the ongoing elections in Assam, Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have spelled their policy on love marriages.

“Vote for those who support Love and not killings,” says the petition.

Sanjoy Sachdev, one of the founders of the group, says the campaign on social media is getting a lot of response. “The day Assam went to the polls, a teacher, who did not disclose his name has sent us a cheque of Rs 500 as donation. He claimed to have pressed the NOTA button,” he said.

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The group also received a donation of Rs 2,000 from a Kolkata based voter for the NOTA campaign.

“Love Commandos wants all political parties to spell out their stand on love affairs, love marriages and protection of lovers’ rights in their election manifestoes, as, right now, all political parties are maintaining a criminal silence of the issue,” says the post of the organisations.
It says, “Love Commandos appeals to the young voters in the country to maintain distance from political parties that do not include their basic problem - the love - in their manifestoes.”

Sachdev told Governance Now that a similar campaign on social media had elicited good results during 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Some 66 lakh voters had opted for NOTA. “Frankly we had estimated that only 25 lakh people will go for NOTA in response to our appeal but such a high number of NOTA was a surprise.

Love Commando helps people through a helpline and commando style rescue of those on the hit list of their families for their temerity of marrying by choice. The young people are rescued and given shelter at an undisclosed location in Delhi by the group and helped to restart their lives.

Sachdev said, of late the most calls from lovers in conflict with society are coming from Tamil Nadu. “It’s a new phenomenon and is distressing.”