umbai : Micro, medium and small enterprises and their workforce in the state have threatened to opt for NOTA this election as a mark of protest for ignoring their demand for a separate MSME secretariat to coordinate and resolve issues of poor promotional and infrastructural support to them. Maharashtra has the highest number of small and medium entrepreneurs in the country. On behalf of the SME Chamber of India and Maharashtra Industries Development Association, their founder President Chandrakant Salunkhe had called on the chief minister, industry minister besides the state and union secretaries. “However, as there has been no positive response, our members will use NOTA in the voting for the rest of the upcoming Lok Sabha election phases,” said Salunkhe. The SME chamber of India has 25 lakh members nationally and around 6.5 lakh in the state. “Post a meeting held in June 2023, under the chairmanship of chief minister Eknath Shinde in the presence of the union minister of Micro and Small Scale Industries, Narayan Rane, ademand for establishing separate departments for small and medium enterprises is consistently pursued. But the government officials are completely indifferent in this regard as a result discontent is brewing ,” he pointed out.