Nationalist Congress Party founder Sharad Pawar on Saturday claimed that ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections, two persons had approached him in Delhi and said that they could “guarantee” the Opposition 160 out of the 288 seats in the state, The Indian Express reported.

Sharad Pawar said that he also introduced them to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, but both of them declined their “offer”, stating it was “not our way” to win elections.

Sharad Pawar’s faction of the NCP and the Congress are part of the Opposition INDIA bloc nationally and the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition in Maharashtra.

“We did not give it the attention it perhaps required,” the newspaper quoted Pawar as saying about the meeting. “They told me…they would guarantee us 160 seats. I was surprised.”

He added: “Even though they claimed such a guarantee, I had no doubts about the Election Commission…Such people do show up, so I ignored them.”

Sharad Pawar told reporters that he arranged for the two persons to meet with Gandhi, who “told them whatever they wanted to”.

However, both leaders decided to focus on earning public support rather than paying attention to such claims, he said.

Sharad Pawar also said he did not have the contact details of the two persons, as he did not consider their claims important, The Indian Express reported.

The NCP founder did not mention which Assembly election he was referring to.

In November, the ruling Mahayuti alliance – comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiv Sena group led by former Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar – won 230 seats in the Assembly elections.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi won 46 seats.

Gandhi and the Congress have repeatedly alleged that there was “industrial-scale rigging involving the capture of our national institutions” in the Maharashtra Assembly elections.

In February, the Congress had urged the Election Commission to explain how the number of registered voters (9.7 crore) for the Maharashtra polls was more than the adult population of the state (9.5 crore).

The Election Commission had said at the time that attempts to defame it by parties that got an unfavourable verdict from voters were “completely absurd”.

On Thursday, Gandhi said that his party had spent six months examining the electoral rolls in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in central Bengaluru and found discrepancies in 1,00,250 names.

He alleged that this was evidence of the Election Commission having colluded with the BJP.

On Saturday, Sharad Pawar praised the presentation made by Gandhi on alleged “vote theft” and also criticised the Election Commission for seeking a signed declaration from the Congress leader, The Indian Express reported.

“The Election Commission is an independent body,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “Rahul Gandhi said he has already taken an oath in Parliament, so there is no need for a separate affidavit. If the EC still insists on such a thing, that is not right.”

He added that the allegations raised by Gandhi needed to be investigated in depth.

After Gandhi’s press conference, the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka had asked the Congress leader to send the names of electors who had been allegedly wrongly included or excluded “so that necessary proceedings can be initiated”.

The chief electoral officer had also asked Gandhi to sign an oath for each such name, adding that making false declarations was punishable under the Representation of Peoples Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Maharashtra CM dismisses claims

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis dismissed Sharad Pawar’s allegations, describing them as a “Salim-Javed script”, PTI reported.

Salim-Javed were an Indian screenwriting duo, Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, known for their work in Hindi cinema.

The BJP leader also questioned the timing of Sharad Pawar’s disclosure.

“Why is Pawar disclosing this after Rahul Gandhi’s claims?” the news agency quoted Fadnavis as saying. “Earlier, Pawar never endorsed Gandhi’s claims about [manipulation of] Electronic Voting Machines.”

The chief minister said that free and fair elections are held in India no matter what.

He added: “Gandhi tells stories that sound like a Salim-Javed script, and what Pawar has said seems to be the same script.”

Fadnavis also criticised Gandhi for not complying with the Election Commission’s demand to submit a sworn declaration about his “vote fraud” allegations.

“Why doesn’t Gandhi give a declaration in a quasi-judicial manner?” Fadnavis asked. “Because he is lying, and if caught, he will be liable to face criminal proceedings.”