Ajit Pawar sets sight on Delhi elections after Maharashtra success to regain NCP’s national party tag | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar announced plans to contest the upcoming Delhi assembly elections in a bid to reclaim the party’s national status after a resounding victory in the Maharashtra assembly elections.
He declared his intent to contest Delhi assembly polls during a felicitation ceremony at the NCP office in Delhi on Thursday, where Pawar also dismissed allegations of electoral fraud raised by the opposition.
Ajit Pawar outlined his vision for the NCP’s revival, saying, “We need to work harder and fight to achieve success,” he said, referencing the party’s loss of national status in April last year.
He also revealed plans to hold a national convention in Delhi, marking the party’s renewed focus on expanding its influence beyond Maharashtra.
Pawar also highlighted the MahaYuti alliance’s cohesiveness amid speculations of internal discord following the Maharashtra elections. “We are united. There are no differences,” he assured, adding that key alliance leaders were scheduled to meet later that day to discuss power-sharing arrangements.
The MahaYuti alliance, comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP, secured a record-breaking 235 seats in the Maharashtra elections, surpassing the Congress’s historic 222-seat victory in 1972.
Pawar refutes opposition’s allegations on EVMs
Addressing allegations of electronic voting machine (EVM) tampering raised by opposition parties, Pawar dismissed them as baseless. “The opposition is blaming EVMs because they didn’t get the results they wanted,” he said, pointing out that the same EVMs had facilitated victories for opposition parties in states like Punjab, Karnataka, and West Bengal.
Pawar also countered calls from Congress and the NCP-SP for a return to ballot paper voting, arguing that EVMs had proven reliable in numerous elections.