Pune, Dec 4 (PTI) Police booked NCP (SP) leader Uttam Jankar and 88 others a day after a section of villagers in Markadwadi village of Solapur district and nearby areas attempted to conduct a "re-election" using ballot papers, an official said on Wednesday.
A day earlier, a case was registered against 200 villagers for allegedly defying prohibitory orders.
Jankar, who had won the Malshiras assembly seat in the recent elections, and others were charged with unlawful assembly and disobeying orders issued by a public servant, among other sections of the Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS).
Police said around 250 to 300 people had gathered to conduct a "repoll" by wilfully defying prohibitory orders and encouraging others to participate in the unauthorised polling process, the official said.
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The idea of conducting re-election with ballot papers was floated after villagers raised doubts about the number of votes counted through EVMs from a polling booth in Markadwadi in the recently-held state polls. However, they relented and gave up their plan after the police's intervention.
Jankar had defeated BJP's Ram Satpute by 13,147 votes.
Though Jankar won the seat, Markadwadi residents claimed the quantum of votes polled by the NCP (SP) leader was less compared with Satpute, expressing doubt about the EVMs.
The Solapur district administration had denied permission to villagers to conduct the re-poll on the ballot paper and imposed prohibitory orders banning unlawful assembly.
The villagers, however, made arrangements for re-polling on Tuesday morning and placed the polling material.
Police held meetings with Jankar and villagers and explained to them the legal procedures and warned of registering cases, officials had said.
Later, the residents relented and cancelled their plans to conduct the repoll.
Police on Tuesday evening registered a case against more than 200 people for allegedly trying to conduct "re-election".
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