NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday expressed his support to the people of Markadwadi village in Maharashtra’s Solapur district, who raised doubts about EVMs and announced plans to conduct a “repoll” using ballot papers.

Earlier this week, police registered a case against more than 200 persons from the village and nearby areas for allegedly trying to conduct a “re-election” using ballot papers in an unauthorised manner.

Pawar, accompanied by several NCP (SP) leaders, including Jayant Patil, met villagers.

Addressing a gathering, the senior politician said, “I would like to thank the villagers because you have shown the right direction to the whole country. You (villagers) were the ones who thought of conducting polls using ballot papers.”

“We have collected some data about EVMs. People cast their votes, but in the end, the results were unexpected. You raised awareness about the issue, and the process needs to change,” he added.

Pawar slammed the police action against villagers who sought to conduct a “re-election” using ballot papers.

“How can the police restrict the gathering of villagers in their village? How can they even file police complaints against you (villagers)? Collect all such complaints and give them to me. I will take this up with the chief minister, state chief electoral officer, the prime minister, and even the Election Commission of India,” he said.

A group of villagers had insisted on re-election with ballot papers while casting doubts on the votes counted through EVMs for a polling booth at Markadwadi in the November 20 state polls.

The village comes under the Malshiras assembly constituency, where NCP (SP) candidate Uttam Jankar defeated the BJP’s Ram Satpute by 13,147 votes.

Though Jankar won the seat, Markadwadi residents claimed the quantum of votes polled by the NCP (SP) leader was lesser than Satpute, expressing doubt about the EVMs.

The NCP (SP) chief said the opposition does not wish to politicise the issue of this village.

“It is my request to Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis that we do not want to politicise the matter. We want to resolve the doubts of these villagers,” he said.

Pawar had on Saturday said a comparison between votes polled and seats won by political parties in the Maharashtra assembly polls was surprising.

“It is true that we have been defeated. We should not fret over it but go back to the people, as no enthusiasm is visible among the people about the election results. There is a lot of resentment,” the senior politician had said during a press conference in Kolhapur.

The ruling BJP-NCP-Shiv Sena alliance won 230 of the 288 seats in the November 20 elections.

The Opposition’s strength in the assembly is low but many young Opposition MLAs will show their mettle after a couple of sessions, Pawar said.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis stated that as a senior leader, Pawar should not mislead the country.

“You will come out of this if you accept defeat. I expect you to give your colleagues advice on introspection,” he stated on X.