Congress MLAs authorise Kharge to choose new legislature party leader

MUMBAI: The newly elected Congress MLAs, in a meeting on Wednesday, authorised party president Mallikarjun Kharge to choose the new leader of the Congress Legislature Party and the chief whip in the state assembly. Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole moved the resolution, which was passed unanimously in the meeting held at the Congress headquarters ‘Tilak Bhavan’.

At the meeting, the party also reiterated its decision to launch a statewide signature campaign to junk EVMs and bring ballot papers back into elections. The signatures will be sent to the President, Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India and Election Commission of India.

Patole indicated that the leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi, in a nationwide campaign similar to his Bharat Jodo Yatra, would push the demand to bring back ballot papers. This has led the state leadership to decide on a signature campaign in the next two days.

“We will not talk about EVMs but will only demand that ballot papers be brought back,” said Patole. “The people are angry, as their only right to elect their representatives is getting wasted. In a democracy, the people are supreme and if they want a change, then the government and judiciary will have to listen to the demand.”

Congress MLAs have blamed EVMs for their poor performance in the recently concluded state assembly elections. At several centres, there was a difference in the total votes polled and the votes shown in the EVM after counting, which created suspicion.

“Several MLAs have shared their disquieting experiences in the elections,” said a Congress MLA who attended Tuesday’s meeting. “For instance, Kalner village in the Kannad assembly constituency has a total of 396 voters, of whom 312 voted. According to the EVM count, the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate got 114 votes, the Shiv Sena candidate got 326 while independent candidate Harshvardhan Jadhav also got 104 votes. How is this possible?”

Another MLA pointed out that many of his colleagues had said that even after being used for 12 hours, the EVMs’ charge was found to be 99%. “This is just not possible,” he said.

The Congress got a meagre 16 seats of the 101 it contested. The situation of other Maha Vikas Aghadi parties—the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SP)—was no better, as they won a mere 20 and 10 seats respectively. Leaders from all the three parties suspect that EVM manipulation played a role in the landslide victory of the Mahayuti coalition.