Elections Result 2019: NCP chief Sharad Pawar accepts peoples' verdict

Sharad Pawar

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) President Sharad Pawar said the Congress-led Mahagathbandhan in the state "respects" the peoples' verdict in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

"The results that have come out are unexpected. We accept the verdict. We shall analyse the outcome, increase our people-to-people contacts, and hope to do better next time. We thank the people for their support," Pawar told the media.

He pointed out that while the NCP has won at least four seats, the constituencies where it has lost are with "narrow margins", compared to the 2014 elections, "but a win is a win".

"Whether elections were fought under Atal Bihari Vajpayee or Manmohan Singh, there were no apprehensions expressed about the polls. But this time, role of the Election Commission and the ruling party has been under a cloud of doubts. The outcome was very unexpected," Pawar said.

He admitted that the NCP was confident of bagging at least 11 seats, but after the defeat, the party has now started work for the upcoming (Assembly) elections.

The NCP has bagged four seats so far -- Supriya Sule-Pawar in Baramati, Marathi filmstar Amol Kolhe in Shirur, descendent of the Chhatrapati Shivaji's royal family, Chhatrapati Udayanraje P. Bhosale from Satara and Sunil Tatkare from Raigad, who defeated Shiv Sena's sole Union Cabinet Minister Anant Geete by a large margin.

Earlier in the day, Pawar said he would not blame the electronic voting machines (EVMS) for the defeat of anti-BJP parties in the Lok Sabha polls and added he has gracefully accepted the people's mandate.

The NCP, along with other opposition parties, had repeatedly raised concerns over the possibility of EVM tampering. Pawar said the opposition parties had anticipated the BJP would do well in certain states, but did not expect "such a big victory" across the country.

Pawar Thursday said he would not blame the electronic voting machines (EVMS) for the defeat of anti-BJP parties in the Lok Sabha polls and added he has gracefully accepted the people's mandate.

The NCP, along with other opposition parties, had repeatedly raised concerns over the possibility of EVM tampering. Pawar said the opposition parties had anticipated the BJP would do well in certain states, but did not expect "such a big victory" across the country.

The NCP chief said his party would introspect the result and toil to better its prospects in the Maharashtra Assembly elections scheduled to be held later this year.

Pawar had recently raised concerns over the use of EVMs in polls, claiming he himself had once seen during a presentation that a vote cast for his party went in the BJP's
favour.

Pawar, however, had said he did not claim that all EVMs function in such a way. "I am also concerned about the machine. In Hyderabad and Gujarat, some people kept an EVM before me and asked me to press a button. "I pressed the button against 'watch' (the NCP's symbol) and the vote got cast in favour of 'lotus' (the BJP's symbol). I saw it happening myself," Pawar had said.

(With inputs from IANS)

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