Villagers In Maharashtra's Solapur To Conduct Repoll With Ballots; Curfew Imposed

Solapur, Maharashtra: Making their distrust and doubt with the Eelectronic Voting Machines (EVMs) obvious, villagers in Maharashtra’s Solapur district on Monday declared they are planning a re-election in their locality using traditional ballot papers to ascertain the poll outcome of the recently held Maharashtra assembly election. The villagers are suspicious about the election result as per the ground reality and due to the allegations against EVMs.

Taking precautionary measure to the villagers’ move, the police have imposed a curfew in their attempt to stop them from conducting elections using ballot paper. However, after the officials’ admonition cautioning the villagers with legal action if they go on with their polling plan, the villagers has cancelled the re-election bid, according to a report by The New Indian Express.

senior police official said they had cautioned the villagers that legal action would be initiated if they went ahead with their “polling” plan.

Read Also: Election Commission Invites Congress For Discussion On Malpractice Allegations

According to a report by Deccan Herald, the villagers claimed that the Malshiras assembly seat winner, Uttam Jankar of NCP (SP), has received more than 80 percent of the votes in Markarwadi village against the sitting MLA and BJP candidate Ram Satupte. As per the recently held election result, Jankar got 1,003 votes while Satpute came second with 843 votes from the village, which was not possible, according to the villagers. They have asserted that Satpute would not have gotten more than 100-150 votes from their village.

During the recent Maharashtra assembly elections, Uttam Jankar had defeated the sitting MLA Satpute by 13,147 votes. Notably, raising the doubt over the vote percentage, the villagers have set up banners claiming re-election to be held on December 3.

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Taking the situation with due seriousness, the Malshiras sub-divisional magistrate has imposed prohibitory orders under section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita from December 2 to 5 in order to avoid any conflict between groups due to this ‘repoll’ plan, the media house reported, citing an official.

There have been several malpractice allegations being raised by the opposition and some media outlets about the recent Maharashtra election result. The allegations include discrepancies in the number of votes polled and counted and the sudden increase in voter turnout after closing the booths, among others.

Read Also: Winning Candidates’ Votes ‘Almost Same’: Karjat-Jamkhed MLA Seeks Poll Body’s Explanation

The Congress has called for a nationwide movement for a return to the ballot paper, issuing a statement for clarification from the poll body regarding the allegations. The EC has, however, invited the grand old party for a discussion on the topic.

During the recent assembly election, the opposition MVA suffered a crushing defeat against the BJP-led Mahayuti, despite the recent Lok Sabha election showing considerable edge for the opposition coalition. The Congress had emerged as the single largest party a few months ago, while the party is now reduced to only 16 seats out of 288. The BJP, on the other hand, managed to secure 132 seats.