Residents of Maharashtra village cancel plans for ‘re-election’ to verify Assembly poll results

Residents of a village in the Malshiras Assembly constituency in Maharashtra’s Solapur district on Tuesday cancelled plans for “re-election” using ballot papers to “verify” polling conducted through Electronic Voting Machines, The Indian Express reported.

This came after the police warned of action against those involved and clarified that only the Election Commission was authorised to conduct such an exercise.

A day earlier, the Malshiras sub-divisional magistrate imposed prohibitory orders in Markadwadi village till Thursday on account of the alleged re-election plan, PTI quoted unidentified officials as saying.

The call for a re-election was made by Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) candidate Uttamrao Jankar, according to The Indian Express. In the recent Maharashtra Assembly elections, Jankar defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ram Satpute by a margin of 13,147 votes from Malshiras.

However, the residents of Markadwadi claimed that he had polled fewer votes in their village against Satpute, which they said was not possible, according to PTI. While Jankar secured 843 votes in the village, Satpute recieved 1,003 votes. The village is known to be Jankar’s stronghold.

Following this, a group from the village put up banners claiming that a “re-election” would be held on Tuesday, PTI reported.

Residents also printed ballot papers listing the candidates and their party symbols in the same order as had appeared on Electronic Voting Machines, The Indian Express reported. Five booths were set up and electoral rolls were prepared.

On Tuesday, Deputy Superintendent of Police Narayan Shirgavkar said that he had met with the residents of the village and with Jankar, PTI reported. “We explained to them procedures in the law and also warned that even if one vote is cast, cases will be registered,” PTI quoted Shirgavkar as saying.

Jankar said that he held a meeting with the residents after speaking to the police.

“Their [residents] opinion was that if the administration is not allowing the polling to take place, there will be chaos and conflict between police and residents and as a result, the process will not take place and people will leave the polling station,” he said.

“However, we will continue our protest by other means,” the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader said. “We will try to take this issue to various authorities such as the Election Commission and judiciary and we will not stop until we get justice.”

The Mahayuti alliance – comprising the BJP, the Shiv Sena group led by Eknath Shinde and the Nationalist Congress Party group led by Ajit Pawar – won 230 out of 288 seats in the recently concluded Assembly elections.

The BJP emerged as the single largest party in the state with 132 seats. The Shinde Sena won 57 seats and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party won 41.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi – comprising the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the Congress – won 46 seats. The Uddhav Sena won 21 seats, the Congress won 16 and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party 10.