Maharashtra: Sharad Pawar holds anti-EVM event in Solapur's Markadwadi, BJP responds

Sharad Pawar on Sunday held an anti-EVM protest in Solapur district's Markadwadi village against the results of recent Maharastra Assembly elections where the party along with coalition Maha Vikas Aghadi suffered a major setback.

He met the villagers and later addressed the event. During his address, he said, "Before coming here I heard that people here were booked when they took a different stand that you wanted to conduct an election on ballot because you were not confident about the results... This is surprising...I want to tell you that whatever complaints you have handed over to me, we will forward them to the Election Commission and CM of the state and bring a resolution that we don't want an election on EVM, it should be done on the ballot."

"America, England and many European countries are conducting elections on ballots, not on EVM...When the whole world is holding elections on the ballot, why not us?" he asked.

Meanwhile, the BJP lambasted Pawar for allegedly peddling lies and deceiving the people of Maharashtra. Speaking about the event, state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said, "Sharad Pawar should accept defeat. He suffered a great loss in these elections. The kind of lies they said in Lok Sabha elections were all rejected by the people. Pawar Sahab has gone to Markadwadi. It doesn't behove a person of his age to lie."

He further said, "Maharashtra respects him. Several elections have been held in Markadwadi. Several elections have been held on EVM in Maharashtra. But they never rejected elections. They did not say anything when 31 of their people were elected as MPs...Pawar Sahab is running around to save his face in the upcoming local body elections...He knows that MVA is going to lose the upcoming elections. They will lose the deposit too..."

What had happened in Markadwadi?

Notably, Markadwadi is a small village in Malshiras assembly constituency, in Solapur district. The village had planned to hold a mock re-poll by ballot to check the authenticity of EVMs as the villagers believed the poll result from their village was contrary to that of the assembly constituency. The seat was won by Uttam Jankar but the trends in villages show different results.

The mock drill was mulled to reveal Makarwadi’s true voting trend but the police shut down the proposed exercise and filed cases against several villagers as well as Jankar. They have been booked for allegedly flouting prohibitory orders and “spreading rumours and fear in the community”.

(With inputs from agencies)