The police, earlier this week, had registered a case against more than 200 people in the village and its neighbouring regions for allegedly trying to conduct a re-poll using ballot papers without authorisation.

Sharad Pawar interacted with the villagers along with several NCP (SP) leaders, including state president of the party Jayant Patil, MP Darhysheel Patil, Vidyatai Chavan and MLA Uttamrao Jankar.

He addressed the gathering, and 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.”

He added that “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.”

Pawar also condemned the police for taking action against the villagers and told them that he would take up the matter with the chief minisster, chief electoral officer, prime minister and ECI.

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

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

Markadwadi residents have claimed the votes counted during the polls for the NCP (SP) leader were lesser than BJP’s Satpute. The NCP (SP) chief also stated that the opposition did 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, on Saturday, had said that he was surprised at the comparison between votes polled and seats won by political parties in the Maharashtra assembly elections.

“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,” he said during a press conference in Kolhapur.

In a post on social media platform X, the leader said, “America is the biggest country in the world today. In America, the vote is cast in the ballot box. England, the second largest democratic country in the world, also casts its vote in the ballot box. Why is the whole world doing it but not in our own India? We are having doubts. Because of that doubt people are uncomfortable, some discrepanices have started to appear.”

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