Markadwadi is a mere speck on the map of India. But it has suddenly emerged as ground zero of the Opposition’s pushback against electronic voting machines (EVMs) being allegedly used to rig the polls — and a return to good old paper ballot. The publicity rightly given to ageing warhorse Sharad Pawar’s visit on Sunday to Markadwadi has thrust the tiny village in Maharashtra’s Malshiras Assembly constituency into national limelight.
One can only hope that the spark lit in Markadwadi spreads to every parliamentary and assembly seat across the length and breadth of the nation like a prairie fire, forcing the present dispensation to junk EVMs which seem to have somehow become the bane of democracy.
In last month’s Maharashtra Assembly polls, Malshiras elected Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) candidate Uttamrao Jankar. He defeated the sitting Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Ram Satpute by 13,417 votes. But in Markadwadi, which has 2400 registered voters, Jankar polled fewer votes than Satpute — 843 against 1003. His supporters swore that was simply impossible considering that Markadwadi is Jankar’s stronghold, and angrily accused district and Election Commission officials of engineering Satpute’s lead by tampering with the EVM.
To re-ascertain the popular mandate, Jankar’s party men in Markadwadi decided to hold a “repoll”. With Jankar’s moral and material support, they printed 2400 ballot papers which had the names of all candidates and party symbols as they appeared in the EVMs. According to reports, they spent Rs 2.1 lakh on making arrangements, but the administration declared the whole exercise illegal and clamped a curfew to abort the “repoll”. After the “repoll” was thwarted, Pawar, accompanied by Jankar, went to Markadwadi to stand with locals. Thanks to Pawar’s visit, the unknown village’s spirited battle against EVMs was highlighted by the print and electronic media.
Ideally, Rahul Gandhi should have accompanied Pawar to Markadwadi as EVMs are probably the biggest obstacle — along with pernicious infighting and back-stabbing — also in the Congress party’s path. He missed a golden opportunity to score his presence at the centre of the Opposition’s anti-EVM protests. I think that if Gandhi had offered to accompany Pawar to Markadwadi, the Maratha stalwart would have surely desisted from heaping fulsome praise on Mamata Banerjee at a time when she is dying to take the reins of INDIA bloc’s leadership in her hands and sideline Gandhi.
If the truth be told, Gandhi is not on the ball in Maharashtra or Haryana. The race in Maharashtra was contested and challenging, but the Congress party was supposed to simply sweep Haryana. The BJP itself had no hopes of retaining Haryana. While the BJP has formed the government in Haryana, Congress party leaders are still fighting among themselves exactly as they were gunning for each other before the polling. Ordinary people in Haryana who voted for the Congress are aghast and angry at the outcome. But not a single Congress party leader has come forward to channelise the popular anger into street protests. How can there be a mass agitation without political leadership?
In Markadwadi, Jankar led the people’s movement for a “repoll” despite winning the elections. Despite his age and ailments, Pawar too paid a visit to raise the morale of his party workers waging an uphill battle against EVMs. But Haryana presents a different picture altogether. The Congress party hasn’t mounted any campaign against EVMs. Before the elections, Congress leaders were fighting among themselves to become chief minister. After losing, they are fighting among themselves to become leader of the Opposition. And the so-called “High Command” is a mute spectator.
If the Congress party is convinced, as it claims, that it lost in Haryana because EVMs were rigged, what’s preventing it from launching an agitation against those notorious gadgets? And besides EVMs, what else was responsible for its defeat? Who are the villains? The Congress party had promptly announced the formation of a fact-finding committee to go into the reasons. Two whole months have passed since then and we are none the wiser. No action has been taken against any one so far. Those who enthusiastically voted for the Congress only to see the BJP come to power are beset with rage, but there is no one to lead them. Their anger will obviously subside with the passage of time.
Who knows what the “High Command” is scared of? Why doesn’t it crack the whip? Infighting and back-stabbing cost the Congress party power in Rajasthan but not one satrap was punished. Not a single head rolled. If the Congress party can’t take its chieftains to task, does it really have a future?
At the last Congress Working Committee meeting, president Mallikarjun Kharge bluntly said: “Lack of unity and statements against each other harm us a lot. Unless we fight elections unitedly and stop making statements against each other, how will we be able to defeat our opponents politically? Therefore, it is important that we strictly follow discipline. We have to remain united under all circumstances.” The irony is that despite Kharge’s open admission of infighting, no one has been served even a show-cause notice, let alone suspended or sacked.
The situation is so dismal that even if Kharge were to step down in sheer disgust as his advice is honoured only in the breach, Congress leaders are not going to mend their ways. They are well and truly incorrigible. After all, Rahul Gandhi had resigned in 2019, but did his loyalists stop their internecine warfare and start prioritising the party’s good over their selfish agendas? It is frankly very difficult to predict the future of a party whose hallmark is disunity and factionalism!
The author is an independent, Pegasused reporter and commentator on foreign policy and domestic politics
