‘People don’t vote for those who sit at home’: Eknath Shinde’s dig at Uddhav Thackeray

Mumbai: Deputy Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena supremo Eknath Shinde on Sunday countered NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar’s statement over the disparity between votes received and seats won by various parties in the November 20 Assembly elections and wondered “was not there an EVM scan when you (referring to Sharad Pawar’s party) win”.

Also, without naming his former boss and Shiv Sena-UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray, he said: “People do not vote for those who sit at home but vote for those who work.”

“Earlier, voting was held in Jharkhand and Karnataka. Lok Sabha elections were also held. Priyanka Gandhi also won. So, when we lose, you call EVM a scam. No one demands a ballot paper instead of EVM when we win. This is duplicity. The opposition has no issue. I had already said that the beloved sisters will make the Opposition upset. All the elements showed the Opposition their place in the state assembly election,” Shinde said.

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“The opposition has hailed orders by the Supreme Court and the Election Commission when the verdict was in their favour. They objected when the verdict went against them. They have targeted the apex court which is dangerous for democracy. The state assembly elections were held through democratic ways and means. The people saw the MahaYuti government’s work,’’ said Shinde.

He further added that the MahaYuti government started various projects and welfare schemes stalled by the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

Shinde said that the MahaYuti alliance got receipt in the form of votes for their work in the just concluded assembly election.

“My challenge is to the opposition party stop crying and start development work,” he added.

Eknath Shinde said that during the Lok Sabha elections there was a difference of 2 lakh votes polled between the MahaYuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi.

‘’The MahaYuti won 17 seats against 31 for Maha Vikas Aghadi. Was that an EVM scam?’’ he questioned. He said that the MahaYuti did not raise any objection at that time.

Shinde said that during the Assembly elections, Shiv Sena won 57 seats after it polled 79 lakh votes while the Congress got 80 lakh votes and bagged 16 seats.

“But Congress contested more than 100 seats while Shiv Sena fought 80 seats. We contested less seats while they contested more seats. So, they got more votes. All this is a different calculation based on the constituencies. It varies according to who was elected by how many votes. Now we have lost 8-10 seats by a margin of 1000 and 1200 votes. Had they been elected; we would have won 70 seats by polling 79 lakh votes. Then there would have been a big objection against this,” Shinde said.