india

Updated: Sep 13, 2019 16:35 IST

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday slammed opposition parties for blaming electronic voting machines (EVMs) for poll reverses, claiming voters have only Prime Minister Narendra Modi in mind.

Addressing a gathering in Sangamner in Ahmednagar district, Fadnavis said the problem was not in the EVMs but in the “khopdi” (head) of these parties.

“The EVM is just a machine. The people who go to vote approach the EVM with only Modi ji in their minds. So they vote for the BJP and Shiv Sena. The problem is not in the machine, but in your khopdi,” he said, taunting them “to get used to being in the opposition”.

“People will not vote you (opposition) to power in the next 25 years. You had so much arrogance but people taught you a lesson by voting you out,” he said.

Fadnavis on Friday embarked on the third phase of his Mahajanadesh yatra from Ahmednagar district.

He held a road show in Akole, the Assembly seat of Vaibhav Pichad, who recently quit the NCP and joined the BJP.

Sangamner is the Assembly constituency of Maharashtra Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat.

“I am asked why take out a yatra when it is known which way the election is heading. The opposition is finished.

I tell them when BJP is in opposition, we take out sanghursh yatra and while in power we take out sanvad yatra,” he claimed.

“This yatra is to have a dialogue with the common man about the work we have done in the last five years, and understand what is left to be done,” he said.

Listing the achievements of his government, Fadnavis said he may not have been able to do everything that he promised, but he has definitely done more than what the previous Congress-NCP government managed.

(The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text, only the headline has been changed)