• Source:JND

Congress was disappointed as both Maharashtra and Jharkhand did not show the expected results as the counting of votes concluded on Saturday. While I Jharkhand it bagged only 16, in Maharashtra too, the seats where the grand old party secured a victory summed up to 15. Reacting to the results, Congress leaders called it 'conspiracy and questioned if the voting machines can be blindly trusted in a country where exam question papers get leaked.

"We will definitely analyse the result that has come. But today we can say that even those who won did not anticipate that this result would come. We were assuming that we will get the mandate. The farmers of Maharashtra are angry, the working class of Maharashtra is against the government. And the atmosphere that was there in Maharashtra 4-5 months ago, the same atmosphere is there today too, we were assuming this and everyone accepted this. But the results that have come are completely opposite to this. But this does not mean that we will step back from our agenda... somewhere there is a conspiracy to defeat us... The result of Maharashtra is very strange, I cannot use any other word for it, it is absolutely strange," said Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.

Pawan Khera mentioned that the concern of their party was democracy and questioned the election process.

"The Lok Sabha election was fought in the name of Modi ji in Maharashtra, BJP lost it. The same state gives the same BJP 132 out of 148 seats within 4-5 months. What kind of strike rate is this? ...Is this strike rate possible? Democracy is our concern. Electoral transparency is our concern. Can the BJP reverse anti-incumbency? We complained continuously. Jairam Ramesh had complained about the name being deleted from the Election Commission's website from the house of a woman BJP leader," said Khera.

"All the leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi had complained. No answer was given...Whether we win or lose, we will continue to question the election process. In a country where exam papers are leaked, can we blindly trust the machines? You cannot shut us up by showing the results of Jharkhand. To date, apart from the poetry, we have not received any concrete answer from the Election Commission," he added.

The constituents of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) suffered a rude jolt with Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray poised to win 20 seats, Congress 16 and NCP(SP) led by Sharad Pawar only 10 seats.