Defeated Candidates of MVA from Pune District Approach Supreme Court Against EVM; Sharad Pawar Takes Initiative
Pune:
After the humiliating performance of the Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA) in the recently concluded Lok Sabha election, the candidates of the Mahavikas Aghadi are constantly questioning the lack of transparency in the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). In this regard, the defeated candidates of the Mahavikas Aghadi from the Pune district have decided to file a petition in the Supreme Court against the EVMs.
Recently, the decision in this regard was taken at a joint meeting in Delhi on the initiative of senior leader Sharad Pawar. Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal and Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi will guide the candidates in this regard.
Prashant Jagtap (Hadapsar), Datta Bahirat (Shivajinagar), Ramesh Bagwe (Pune Cantonment), Ashwini Kadam (Parvati), and Sanjay Jagtap (Purandar) were present in this meeting. Apart from them, other leaders such as Harshvardhan Patil (Indapur), Sangram Thopte (Bhor), and Ramesh Thorat have informed their consent to abide by the decision taken in the meeting. Apart from these, the senior leader of Congress, Balasaheb Thorat (Sangamner), was also present at this meeting.
On Tuesday afternoon, these candidates met at Sharad Pawar’s residence in Delhi. In this meeting, Pawar listened to everyone’s views. Everyone expressed doubts about the EVMs. They also presented the statistics about it. Pawar then contacted the senior advocate, Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Later, Pawar also discussed the matter with Kejriwal over the phone.
Singhvi is a renowned advocate in the Supreme Court. He said that he would meet these candidates along with Pawar on Tuesday evening. Accordingly, the meeting will be held late on Tuesday night. He informed that a petition would be filed in the Supreme Court not against the results but against the counting of votes in EVMs.
He said, “Despite informing the Election Commission about their grievances, they are not ready to provide the necessary information regarding the counting of votes. Further, despite collecting the money for it, they are not cooperating with us. The Election Commission is saying that the VVPATs from only a certain number of machines will be counted.”
Singhvi said that transparency in the results is essential in a democratic system, and on this issue, they are filing the petition in the court.
