NCP leader Sharad Pawar has said that he plans to visit the EVM-sceptic village of Markadwadi on Sunday to interact with the villagers who conducted a mock repoll recently using ballot papers.
“The election process is over. So why is a mock ballot repoll banned here? The people of that village wanted to see who got the votes. So now we have decided to hear what the people of that village have to say,” Pawar said while announcing about his decision at a press conference in Kolhapur on Saturday.
Advertisement
“Four elections have been held in the last two months. In Haryana, the BJP’s condition was very bad, but they won there. In Jammu & Kashmir, the Congress did not get much success, while the National Conference got success. In Maharashtra, the BJP won, but it was defeated in Jharkhand. The results show that the BJP has won in big states, while smaller states have gone to the opposition,” he said.
He said that an analysis of voting data has revealed that the Congress got 80 lakhs votes, but ended up with only 16 MLAs, while the ruling Shinde-led Shiv Sena got 79 lakh votes, but got 57 seats, while the NCP (Sharad Pawar) bagged 72 lakh votes but managed only 10 seats, even as the ruling Ajit Pawar-led NCP got 58 lakhs votes and bagged 41 seats.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi is likely to go on a padyatra to Markadwadi village and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray will also visit the village. It is also learnt that leaders of other INDIA bloc parties are likely to go to the village and interact with the people in the coming days.
It may be recalled that Markadwadi village shot to fame after EVM-sceptic villagers attempted to carry out a mock repoll using ballot papers inspired by the NCP (Sharad Pawar) MLA Uttamrao S. Jankar on December 3.
However, the local police and district authorities clamped down upon villagers by issuing prohibitory orders and warned them that even if a single ballot paper vote was cast, stringent action would be taken against them. So far, it is learnt that legal proceedings have been taken against more than a 100 villagers in Markadwadi.
