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NCP (SP) MLA alleges discrepancies in Maharashtra vote count through postal ballots and EVMs

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Pune, Nov 27 (PTI) NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar on Wednesday alleged discrepancies in votes counted through ballot papers and EVMs in recently-held Maharashtra assembly polls which saw the BJP-led Mahayuti retaining power by trouncing the opposition MVA coalition.

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Pawar demanded that the Election Commission of India allow the opposition to inspect any random EVM for investigation by private experts.

Joining the Opposition clamour over the credibility of EVMs, Pawar claimed NCP (SP) workers have raised doubts over EVMs used in the state elections. "These doubts are not good for democracy," he added.

Rohit Pawar, a grandnephew of NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, managed to retain the Karjat-Jamkhed assembly constituency by a thin margin of 1,200 votes.

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The Mahayuti won 230 seats and MVA only 46 in the 288-member House.

Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena (UBT) emerged as the largest party in the opposition camp by winning 20 seats, followed by Congress which bagged 16 constituencies, while the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) sits at the bottom with a tally of 10 seats.

"We were expecting to comfortably win between 124 and 130 seats. Our candidates conducted a rigorous campaign. The overall atmosphere was against the ruling Mahayuti over issues such as safety and security of women, agriculture distress, and unemployment," Rohit Pawar told reporters.

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He claimed the massive mandate of Mahayuti was incomprehensible for various stakeholders including electors.

According to Pawar, around 6 crore votes were counted through Electronic Voting Machines and 5.5 lakh votes through postal ballots.

"When the postal ballots were counted, the vote share of Mahayuti and MVA stood at 43.3 per cent and 43.1 per cent, respectively. However, after EVM votes were counted, the vote share of Mahayuti went up to 49.5 per cent while MVA's vote share dipped to 35 per cent," he claimed.

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Typically, the difference between the counting of votes through ballot papers and EVMs is not more than 3 to 4 per cent, he said.

The Election Commission should explain these discrepancies, he said.

"We demand that the EC deploy high-resolution cameras and allow us access to random EVM for four days. We will open these EVMs with the help of our experts and conduct a postmortem, inspection, and investigation," he said.

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In view of the poll defeat, the losing Maha Vikas Aghadi candidates have decided to seek verification of the EVM-Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) units in their segments, an opposition bloc leader has said.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also criticised the electronic voting system and demanded that the ballot paper mechanism be restored.

Notably, the Supreme Court Tuesday dismissed a plea seeking to revert to paper ballot voting in elections in the country, saying allegations of tampering with electronic voting machines (EVM) raked up only when people lose polls. PTI SPK NSK

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