Mumbai: Villagers in Markadwadi prepared to cast their votes once again on Tuesday morning. With a voting booth, ballot paper and counting box ready, they waited to start a mock election by 8 am. But, the police and local administration stopped them. After a back and forth, the proposed voting stood cancelled.

Solapur’s Markadwadi village falls within the Malshiras assembly constituency, from where the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) candidate Uttam Jankar won against his opponent from the Bharatiya Janata Party—Ram Satpute—by a margin of 13,147 votes. However, in Markadwadi, Jankar polled fewer votes, 843, against Satpute’s 1,003, according to the booth-level election results.

However, on Monday, the police imposed Section 144 in Markadwadi as a preventive measure. The next day, villagers could not go ahead with the mock poll.

“We were going to start the election process this morning, but the administration is very firm in not letting us go ahead. They said if we go ahead, they will press charges against us,” Uttam Jankar, the NCP-Sharad Pawar MLA from Malshiras, told the media on Tuesday.

“They said they would take away the (voting) machinery and would not listen to us. Roughly 250-300 people had gathered. Not many people came due to the threat from the administration. We need at least 1,500-odd people to check the results. So, we will not go ahead with this election and think of other ways,” he added.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Narayan Shirgaonkar told the media, “We are not resorting to any autocracy. We have imposed BNS 163 (which corresponds to IPC 144) and are prohibiting gathering of people. We are just informing people about it. If they do not follow it, we will press charges accordingly.”

Earlier on 29 November, the villagers wrote to the local administration, raising suspicions about the EVMs used in the recently concluded Maharashtra assembly polls. The letter, a copy of which ThePrint has accessed, said Jankar could not get fewer votes than Satpute from Markadwadi and requested the local administration to provide for the government machinery required to conduct a ballot paper-based mock poll on 3 December.

However, the election officer in Malshiras rejected the request. Writing back, Vijaya Pangarkar said, “The Markadwadi village submitted an application for the government machinery to conduct a re-poll and for the result to be declared. They even said that they arranged for the money and resources. But there is no provision for such a mock poll on ballot papers after the completion of the election process. It is illegal, and hence we have denied permission and will not support this.” ThePrint has a copy of the letter.

Markadwadi has a population of roughly 2,000, and 1,900 of them voted in the assembly polls. According to the villagers, the result at the booth level is not possible because they all believe in Jankar and are his followers. They say Satpute, who has traditionally won 200-300 votes, cannot get a lead from their village.

In their letter, the villagers shared the previous election data to demonstrate their point. In the 2014 assembly election, of the 1,538 voters from the village, 979 voted for Jankar’s candidate while 294 voted for the opponent. In the 2019 assembly polls, of the 1,672 voters from the village, 1,346 voted for Jankar’s candidate while 300 voted for the opponent. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, of the 1,683 voters from the village, 1,021 voted for Jankar’s candidate and 466 for the opponent.

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‘Villagers paid Rs 2-3 lakh for mock polls’

Jankar belongs to the Dhangar community, and Markadwadi has a majority Dhangar population. Since 2009, the villagers have been voting for Jankar or a candidate backed by him, those approached by ThePrint said. They wrote to the local administration about how they voted overwhelmingly for Jankar and that there was “no way Satpute got 160 more votes than Jankar”.

On Monday, when ThePrint spoke to a few villagers gathered for the mock poll, they seemed determined to see the election process through.

“We just want to know what is true and what is not,” said Vijay Patil, a villager. “There is doubt over the EVM process. That is why we wanted the election on the ballot paper.”

Amar Ghorpade, another villager who turned furious after the local administration refused to let them vote, said, “Why are they stopping us? It is not their business. We only want to clear our doubts, so let us vote.”

The villagers said they have been preparing for the mock polls for the past five days. From arranging postal ballots to organising the booth space, they spent nearly Rs 2-3 lakh, Jankar told the media.

However, with Section 144 imposed in Markadwadi till 5 December, the police have the power now to issue orders in case of a nuisance or if they apprehend danger. So, despite villagers gathering to conduct the mock poll, Jankar called off the election after discussions with them.

However, Jankar said, “This fight will go on. In the next 8-10 days, we will march towards the local administration office. We plan to organise a mob of at least 25,000 to 50,000 from across the constituency. But until and unless we get justice, I will not stop.”

“Ideally, the government and administration should let us go ahead with this process to clear our doubts,” he said. “The villagers demanded re-poll; the election officer did not allow it. The local administration stopped us. The police threatened to take our equipment if even one vote went into the counting box. The government is scared.”

He further said the process would have been live on television channels and set an example to all people in the state.

(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)

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