Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis alleges 'deep state' behind EVM allegations

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has alleged a lsquodeep statersquo conspiracy behind the allegations of tampering with the electronic voting machines EVM in the recent elections He said the Maoistrelated frontal organisationsmdashsome of which were part of Congress leader Rahul Gandhis Bharat Jodo Yatramdashhad participated in an international meeting held recently in KathmanduResponding to a debate on the Governors speech in the Maharashtra Assembly Fadnavis said the agenda of the Kathmandu meeting was to implement the lsquofake EVM narrativersquo in the country with specific emphasis on Maharashtra He said their motive was to create anarchy by eroding the publics trust in the constitutional bodies of the countryldquoSee it was decided in Kathmandu I dont question your patriotism But I request you to not allow others to use your shoulders to fire their guns It is a deep state activity There are some people foreign entities who dont like the progress India is makingrdquo Fadnavis saidAccording to Fadnavis the frontal organisations that worked for Naxal Maoist activities and campaigned for the Congressled Opposition were identified by the then home minister R R Patil while replying to questions by MLAs in 2013 Some of them were identified by the Manmohan Singh government in the Lok Sabha in 2014 ldquoThe Parliament has evidence of a foreign hand in managing the Indian elections in favour of the BJPs oppositionrdquo he said while quoting intelligence reportsThe CM said when the armed Maoists weakened the movement shifted to urban areas where the youth have been brainwashed to work against the constitutional bodies ldquoIt is a formative age when one has a tendency to reject everything that comes ones way The youth is prepared for a revolt What does a revolt mean It means rejecting Dr Ambedkars constitution and creating anarchyrdquo he saidFadnavis statement came a day after the government tabled a bill to identify and neutralise the Maoist sympathiser frontal organisations that would be deemed unlawful The CM recalled the antiEVM rally that had been held recently He said the main speaker a lawyer was a defender of terrorists He reiterated the charge of vote jihad in certain Assembly and Lok Sabha constituenciesCountering the Oppositions charge that 75 lakh additional votes were cast in the last hour of the Assembly polling Fadnavis said ldquoThis is yet another fake narrative which we will destroyrdquo He produced the election commissions official statistics to prove the Opposition wrong He said only 17 lakh votes not 75 lakh were polled in the last hour He said the VVPAT was nothing but a ballot paper polling that could be verified ldquoPeople voted for us and elected us Thats all EMV means lsquoevery vote for Maharashtrarsquo Whenever the results went against them the Opposition blamed EVMsrdquoFadnavis also lashed out at Sharad Pawar for being a party to the fake narrative ldquoPawarsaheb had never raised a question over EVMs but this time he came up with a new logic that the small states have been given to the Opposition while the bigger ones went to the BJPrdquo he said adding that the mock ballot paper polling in Markadvadi village was forced on the villagers who were threatened by the NCP and the Opposition ldquoWe dont have tolerance for such lsquodadagirirsquordquoFadnavis began his first speech in the legislature of the current term by recounting the way he and his family were targeted by political rivals ldquoIt was a sort of record that some people criticised us consistently on a daily basis They created an atmosphere that actually led the people to sympathise with me The people had seen five years of me as the CM which were for the welfare of the massesrdquo he saidldquoRemember Im a modern lsquoAbhimanyursquo who knows how to break the trap Irsquom standing here again The credit goes to my party our Mahayuti partners and the people of Maharashtrardquo he said quoting a poem that loosely translates to him being a light that burned even in stormsFadnavis assured the house that his government would not scrap any scheme or back out from fulfilling promises Regarding the immensely popular lsquoLadki Bahin Yojanarsquo he said the beneficiaries who had availed of the scheme fraudulently would be removed because the state monies were to be used only for those eligibleReacting to Fadnavisrsquo statements state Congress president Nana Patole said if such frontal antisocial organisations were found in Bharat Jodo nobody had stopped the BJP government from taking action against them