MUMBAI: Three days after a ‘mock ballot paper’ polling in Solapur was foiled by the Maharashtra Police, top INDIA bloc leaders are likely to visit and interact with the villagers of Markadwadi in Malshiras soon, officials said here on Friday.
Solapur Congress leaders visited the village and discussed the issue with Nationalist Congress Party (SP) MLA Uttamrao S. Jankar to plan out the tentative dates for a visit by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi to Markadwadi.
“Along with Rahul Gandhi and NCP (SP) President Sharad Pawar, other senior leaders are planning a trip to Markadwadi and meet the villagers here soon. We are working out the details of the visit, ” Jankar told IANS.
Jankar had spearheaded the initiative to oppose the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Markadwadi shot to national fame after the 2000-odd villagers there organised a ‘mock ballot paper polling’ on December 3 (Tuesday), but the local authorities clamped down, forcing it to be canceled.
The spark kindled by Markadwadi has now spread to Akola where at least two villages had organised a similar ‘mock ballot paper poll’ today (December 6), said the inspirational force behind it, Prakash Pohre.
“We had planned the test ballot paper polling exercise in Tuljapur (Balapur) and Beltala (Patur) villages today. However, the local authorities appealed to us to postpone it on account of the B.R. Ambedkar Jayanti and Babri Mosque anniversary falling today, ” Pohre told IANS.
Chairman of the ‘Deshonnati Group’, Akola - a Marathi media conglomerate - Pohre said that yesterday, thousands of people in around 9-10 villages in several districts of Vidarbha protested against the EVMs -- to send a message to the new MahaYuti government that was sworn-in on Thursday in Mumbai in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Echoing the sentiments of top Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders after the results of the state Assembly elections were declared (November 23), Pohre said that there have been nagging doubts among the people who suspect “something very fishy” in the polls verdict that gave an unexpected and unprecedented landslide to the ruling MahaYuti.
A Congress leader in Mumbai said that they were awaiting information from the Congress headquarters on Rahul Gandhi’s likely visit as the Parliament Winter Session is on till December 20.
NCP (SP) Spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said that Sharad Pawar has discussed with Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders to take the example of Markadwadi seriously and launch a nationwide campaign against EVMs.
Besides Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, other MVA leaders including Uddhav Thackeray, Nana F. Patole, Supriya Sule, Sanjay Raut, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Balasaheb Thorat, Vijay Wadettiwar, M. Arif Naseem Khan, Dr. Jitendra Awhad, Clyde Crasto, Ashok Dhawale, Prakash Ambedkar, Kishore Tiwari, and more have raised questions on EVMs and demanded a return to traditional Ballot Paper voting.
Meanwhile, Pohre said that after consulting the villagers of Tuljapur and Beltala (Akola), the ‘mock ballot paper poll’ is likely to be rescheduled around December 15, even as demands are pouring in from other districts to conduct similar exercises in their respective regions.
The total rout of the MVA allies Congress-NCP (SP)-Shiv Sena (UBT) by the MahaYuti of Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party had stunned the state political spectrum and the Opposition pointed the needle of suspicion at the EVMs, alleging various lapses in the figures of voter turnout and the counting.
However, the Election Commission of India and Maharashtra State Election Commission have vehemently denied the contentions and even invited a Congress delegation for a meeting in New Delhi on Monday to allay their fears about EVM manipulation.