MUMBAI: Amid speculation that he has offered to resign as Maharashtra Congress president, Nana Patole on Monday met party president Mallikarjun Kharge to brief him about what happened in the state elections. State Assembly, following the party’s debacle. Expressing doubts over the results, Patole said they would find out the real reason behind the landslide victory of the Mahayuti alliance and rubbished reports that he tendered his resignation from the post of state president.

“We don’t say anything about EVMs, but people started wondering if the results would be decided by a machine or by their votes. A debate is underway among the people and the Congress will not stop there,” Patole told reporters in New Delhi after his 45-minute meeting with Kharge.

To corroborate his suspicions, he shared the poll voting figures for the Nanded Lok Sabha seat and six assembly constituencies in the district. The difference in votes was 1,84,322 between the Lok Sabha bypoll and the parliamentary elections when both the polls were held at the same time.

“We will have to decide on our future strategy and find the culprit to save democracy,” the state president said.

Patole is expected to meet Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition, on Tuesday. He called a meeting of newly elected deputies on Wednesday. The next day, the party will hold another meeting of candidates defeated in the polls to examine the reasons and outline future plans.

The Congress won only 16 of the 101 seats contested by the party in the parliamentary elections. Patole won the Sakoli seat by a narrow margin of 208 votes, leading to speculation that he might resign as state president, which Patole quickly refuted. “I have not said or discussed anything like that with the party chairman.”