Opposition parties in Maharashtra have yet to accept the poll verdict and have continued to raise questions about the Electronic Voting Machine and the role of the Election Commission of India. However, the Maharashtra Election Commission on Tuesday said that there was no mismatch in the voting data when the VVPAT slips and the EVM figures were tallied as part of the verification process.
“It is mandatory to count VVPAT slips of Randomly Selected 5 Polling Stations per Assembly Constituency / Assembly Segment as per the guidelines of the Election Commission of India,” said the Chief Election Officer Maharashtra.
The officer further added, “Accordingly, VVPAT Slip count of randomly selected 5 polling stations per Assembly Constituency has been conducted on 23/11/2024 during the counting procedure, in front of the Counting Observer / Representatives of Candidates. As per that, slip count of 1440 VVPAT units from 288 Assembly Constituencies of Maharashtra State has been tallied with respective Control Unit data.”
“There is no discrepancy found between the VVPAT slip count and EVM Control unit count as per the reports received from the concerned DEOs. Due procedure laid by ECI has been followed,” said the CEO, Maharashtra.
With the opposition crying foul, the BJP has dared Sharad Pawar to make NCP(SP) MLAs and MPs resign. BJP leader Gopichand Padalkar on Tuesday dared Sharad Pawar to ask his daughter and grandnephew to resign as MP and MLA, respectively, if they don’t trust EVMs. BJP MLA Padalkar and MLC Sadabhau Khot addressed a public meeting in Markadwadi village in Solapur district which has emerged as the epicentre of anti-EVM protests after villagers unsuccessfully tried to hold a mock “repoll” using ballot papers last week.
Kolewadi village, located in Maharashtra’s Satara district, has decided to conduct all future elections using ballot papers, becoming the second village in the state to pass a resolution opposing the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs). This village falls within the Karad (South) assembly constituency, which was previously represented by senior Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan. In the November elections, Chavan lost to BJP candidate Atul Bhosale by a margin of 39,355 votes.
The resolution was adopted after residents of Kolewadi voiced concerns and skepticism regarding the credibility of votes cast through EVMs.
Earlier, Maharashtra’s Markadwadi village has hit the headlines last week after a section of villagers tried to conduct mock ‘re-polling’ using ballot papers expressing doubt about the credibility of EVMs. Their bid was thwarted by the administration and police, leading to the registration of cases. If the administration doesn’t allow us to vote on ballot papers, we will boycott the polling process, said the villagers. (With ANI/PTI inputs)
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