The very first day of the six-day winter session of the Maharashtra
assembly that began in Nagpur on Monday witnessed a protest by Maha
Vikas Aghadi’s (MVA) MLAs against the use of electronic voting
machines (EVMs), right at the entrance steps of the Vidhan Bhavan
building.

Led by Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Ambadas Danwe,
several other MVA Opposition MLAs like Nana Patole (Congress), Vijay
Wadettiwar (Congress), Jitendra Awhad of the NCP (Sharad Pawar),
Mahesh Sawant, Nitin Raut, Bhaskar Jadhav, Bhai Jagtap, Vikas Thakre,
Amit Deshmukh, Satej Patil, Abhijit Wanjari, among others took part in
the anti-EVM protest.

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They raised slogans like “Scrap EVMs, Save Democracy”, “Save the
Constitution, Remove EVMs”, and “Bring Back Ballot Paper Voting”,
displaying placards carrying similar messages. The MVA leaders said
that the incredible election outcome and alleged irregularities during
the recently concluded 2014 Maharashtra assembly election have cast
serious doubts about EVMs.

However, Devendra Fadnavis’ confidante and newly sworn-in minister
Girish Mahajan ridiculed the Opposition leaders for protesting against
EVMs at the Vidhan Sabha in Nagpur. “Voters in Maharashtra have
rejected these parties and their leaders. When they win elections,
they never protest against EVMs but as soon as they lose, they blame
EVMs. There has never been a time when the Opposition parties got so
few seats. So, by protesting, they are simply trying to give an
impression that they are still relevant,” Mahajan said.