Raising eyebrows in the Opposition circles, senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Ajit Pawar on Saturday lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and expressed full faith in the EVMs used during elections.

“What’s wrong with the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)? I personally have full faith in them. When people lose elections, they blame EVMs instead of accepting the people’s verdict,” Pawar said while talking to mediapersons here.

Attempting to put at rest the EVM controversy, Pawar asked if EVMs were indeed faulty, then Opposition parties would have never won elections and come to power in states such as Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala or Tamil Nadu.

“I don’t think it is possible to rig EVMs in our country on such a scale. It is a huge system with many checks and balances involved,” said Pawar, who is the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly.

Referring to the Prime Minister, Pawar said said that after winning the elections in 2014, Modi had faced a lot of criticism.

However, it’s a fact that he became very popular among the masses, and the BJP won polls in many states because of him, Pawar said.

The BJP under his leadership repeated the 2014 feat in the 2019 elections, he added.

Pawar also wondered what was the point in raising questions over the Prime Minister’s academic qualifications after nine years in power when there are major issues facing the country such as unemployment, inflation, farmers issues etc.

“What is important to note is that people see his work. Education is not considered a very important criteria in politics,” said Pawar.

He also mentioned how, even in Maharashtra, former Chief Ministers like Vasantdada Patil were not highly educated but had excellent administrative skills and are remembered even today for that.

“During Vasantdada Patil’s tenure, many major academic institutions came up all over the state,” Pawar said.

(The story has been published via a syndicated feed with a modified headline.)