Nagpur: Opposition members protested on the steps of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly here on Monday and raised slogans against the use of EVMs in elections.
A protest was held on the opening day of the winter session of the state legislature in Nagpur.
Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Council, Ambadas Danve, led the demonstration by leaders of the opposition Mahavikas Aghadi (MVA), who called for “saving” the constitution and democracy and opposed the use of EVMs.
They raised slogans like ‘Save the EVMs’, ‘Save the Constitution’, ‘Save the EVMs’ and ‘Save the EVMs’.
Danve was accompanied by Congress MLAs Vijay Wadettiwar, Nitin Raut, Bhai Jagtap and Vikas Thackeray, Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders Bhaskar Jadhav, Varun Desai and Sachin Ahir, and NCP (SP) MLA Jitendra Awhad.
Talking to reporters, Danve claimed that electronic voting machines are ‘dangerous’ to democracy and that people are against the use of EVMs in elections.
The Sena (UBT) leader said, “We think that EVMs should be removed and elections should be conducted through ballot papers.”
Notably, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday criticized the opposition MVA for describing the ruling grand coalition as “the government of EVMs”.
“Our government came to power because every vote went for Maharashtra,” Fadnavis said.
Responding to that, Danway said, “Every vote is for the ballot.”
Congress leader Bhai Jagtap said the EVMs indicated “every vote for Mahayuti”.
He accused the Center and the BJP-led Maharashtra government of misusing EVMs.
The Congress and MVA will create awareness about using ballot papers instead of EVMs in elections, he said.
Beed NCP (SP) MLA Sandeep Kshirsagar has alleged the involvement of local NCP worker Valmik Karad in the killing of Sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh of a village in the district last week.
Kshirsagar demanded justice from Deshmukh and said that if the demand is not met, he will take out a huge march in Beed after the winter session of the legislature.