Devendra Fadnavis likens Opposition with 'dim-witted child' over EVM charge at Solapur rally; one Congress, two NCP MLAs join BJP

Solapur: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday took a dig at the Congress and the NCP over their EVM tampering allegations by equating them with a “dim-witted child, who blames it on a faulty pen for failing in an exam”. He was speaking here at the conclusion of the second leg of his ‘Mahajanadesh Yatra’, a mass contact programme launched on 1 August. BJP chief and Union Home Minister Amit Shah was also present at the event. [caption id=“attachment_4842811” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. PTI[/caption] “The situation of Congress and NCP is like a dim-witted child, who does not study at all and fails in the exam but blames it on a faulty pen. When NCP candidate Supriya Sule wins from Baramati, then there is no problem with EVMs, but when BJP wins in other places, they blame it on the machines,” Fadnavis said. “There is no problem with EVMs, but certainly with your head,” he added. Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, NCP chief Sharad Pawar had said that if Sule does not win from Baramati, he will lose confidence in EVMs. Recently, prominent opposition leaders, including state Congress president Balasaheb Thorat, MNS chief Raj Thackeray, NCP’s Ajit Pawar and Chhagan Bhujbal, had held a press conference, where they termed the Lok Sabha polls results as “shocking”. Raising concern over the use of EVMs, they had also made a pitch for reverting to the use of ballot papers. Meanwhile, Congress MLA Jaykumar Gore from Mann-Khatav segment in Satara, former NCP MP Dhananjay Mahadik, NCP MLA Rana Jagjit Singh Patil from Tuljapur assembly segment of Osmanabad district on Sunday joined the BJP in the presence of Amit Shah. The third phase of Fadnavis’s ‘Mahajanadesh Yatra’ will begin after the ten-day Ganesh festival.