Sharad Pawar: Unprecedented Use Of Money & Power In Maharashtra Polls

In a harsh criticism, NCP(SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday claimed that power and money to control the entire election mechanism was misused at a scale that was never seen before in any state assembly or national polls. Pawar made this statement while referring to the recently held Maharashtra poll where his alliance, namely the MVA (Maha Vikas Aghadi) suffered a debacle.

Pawar made his comment when he visited senior activist Dr Baba Adhav who is in protest alleging misuse of EVMs in the recent assembly poll in Maharashtra. Adhav, a nonagenarian, began his three-day protest at Phule Wada, which was the residence of famed social reformer Jyotiba Phule, on Thursday (November 28).

Pawar however said to the media that he has no proof of EVM discrepancies albeit there is some truth to claims by some leaders about votes being added to the machines. However, he said that the claim may have some truths.

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Pawar was quoted by media to have said— "There is a murmur among the people that the recent polls in Maharashtra saw 'misuse of power' and 'floods of money', which was never seen in the past. Such things are heard of in local-level polls, but taking over the entire election mechanism with the help of money and misuse of power was not seen before. However, we witnessed it in Maharashtra, and people are restless now."

“I heard Baba Adhav has taken a lead into this issue and is agitating at Phule Wada. His protest gives hope to the people, but it is not enough. A mass revolt is necessary, as the danger of the parliamentary democracy getting destroyed looms," he added.

Pointing towards the impasse in the parliament, Pawar remarked –“Despite widespread discussion over it (alleged misuse of EVMs) in the country, whenever the opposition tries to raise the issue in the Parliament, they are not allowed to speak. Opposition leaders have been seeking an opportunity to speak on these issues for six days, but their demands have not been accepted even once. It shows they want to attack parliamentary democracy.”

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His criticism did not spare the election commission—“ We did not act on this as we did not believe them. We never thought that the Election Commission would go to such an extent. We have not expressed distrust towards the institution, but after the Maharashtra polls, it looks like there was truth to the claims”, where he referred to the claim of additional votes being added to the EVMs.

The senior leader and a doyen of Maharashtra politics said that the allegations of Congress leaders such as Balasaheb Thorat that seven per cent of votes were cast in the last two hours of the election are shocking.

“It is not only Thorat but a lot of people have come up with similar information, and it needs to be taken into account. The Congress held a meeting on the issue, and there was a discussion that the INDIA bloc should take up this issue together. I am sure that by Monday, some decision will be made,” Pawar said.

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