EVMs ensure proper voting, show correct numbers: Ajit Pawar

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Ministerand senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar on Wednesday said ElectronicVoting Machines (EVMs) ensure proper polling and show correctnumbers which he attributed to his personal experience as acontestant in the state Assembly polls held in the past.

Comments of Ajit Pawar, nephew of NCP chief SharadPawar, appeared to be at variance with the party's stand onthe EVMs.

Speaking at a press conference here, Ajit Pawarsarcastically said the EVM provides for ''an opportunity to thecandidates who get routed in elections or for their parties tocite tampering of the machine as the cause for the electoraldefeat''.

''I too have contested six to seven polls...it (theEVM) ensures proper polling and shows proper numbers,'' saidAjit Pawar, who represents Baramati Assembly segment, and alsoholds Finance portfolio.

He was responding to a question on the ongoingdiscussion on the use of ballot papers in future polls inMaharashtra along with the EVMs.

He had won the 2019 Assembly polls from the familybastion of the Pawars in Pune district with a huge margin of1.65 lakh votes.

The deputy CM also noted that elections, includingthose for Lok Sabha and the state Assembly, are already heldusing the EVMs.

Before resigning recently, then Maharashtra AssemblySpeaker Nana Patole had asked the state legislature to frame alaw to give voters the option of using ballot papers besidesEVMs in the local governing bodies' and state Assembly polls.

The NCP had then said that those winning elections dueto the EVMs will be defeated if polling for the 2024Maharashtra Assembly polls is held using ballot papers only.

When asked whether the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)government of the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress will explore theoption of approaching court if state governor Bhagat SinghKoshyari fails to take a decision on appointing MLCs on 12seats, Ajit Pawar said, ''I think the governor will not letthat time to come''.

He said these names were sent to the governor byobserving rules.

The state government in November last year recommended12 names to the governor for nomination as MLCs. The decisionon the same is still pending.