NCP (SP) leader, 88 villagers booked for bid to conduct ‘re-poll’ with ballot papers

Police have registered a case against NCP (SP) leader Uttam Jankar and 88 others after a section of people from Markadwadi village in Solapur district and nearby areas attempted to conduct a “re-election” using ballot papers, an official said.

Prior to this, police had registered a case against more than 200 persons for allegedly defying prohibitory orders and trying to conduct the “re-election”.

On Wednesday, Jankar, who won the Malshiras Assembly seat in the recent Maharashtra elections, and others were charged with unlawful assembly and disobeying orders issued by a public servant, among other Sections of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, the official said.

Markadwadi village comes under the Malshiras Assembly segment.

On Tuesday morning, 250 to 300 persons gathered in the Markadwadi village to conduct a “repoll” by wilfully defying prohibitory orders and encouraging others to participate in the unauthorised polling process, the police said.

The idea of conducting “re-election” with ballot papers was floated after villagers raised doubts about the number of votes counted through EVMs from a polling booth in Markadwadi in the recently-held state elections.

However, they relented and gave up their plan after the police’s intervention.

Jankar had defeated 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 less compared with Satpute, expressing doubt about the EVMs.

The Solapur district administration had denied permission to villagers to conduct the “re-poll” on ballot papers and imposed prohibitory orders banning unlawful assembly.

The villagers, however, made arrangements for “re-polling” on Tuesday morning and placed the polling material.

Police held meetings with Jankar and villagers and explained to them the legal procedures and warned of registering cases, officials had said.

Later, the residents relented and cancelled their plans to conduct the “repoll”.