Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 8: Unable to digest the Haryana setback where the party lost the Assembly elections much against the exit poll predictions, the Congress as usual blamed the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for the upset which was promptly refuted by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Hours after the BJP snatched victory from the Grand Old Party despite initial trends indicating a comfortable win for the latter, senior party leaders Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera blamed EVMs and said the party had lost on seats “where it had no chance of losing.”
Addressing a press conference, they said, “We are getting constant complaints [from Haryana]. We were being told that EVMs that had 99 per cent battery were leading to our loss, while we won when voters voted on machines that had 60-70 per cent batteries.”
Ramesh said: “Ye tantra ki jeet hai aur loktantra ki haar. We have been constantly complaining to the Election Commission since afternoon. We will give our complaints to EC. Serious questions have been raised by our candidates and this result is against the will of the people of Haryana. Under such circumstances, we cannot accept the results.”
Earlier in the day, former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda trained his guns on the Election Commission, blaming the poll body for not updating the results of many constituencies that the Congress was supposedly winning on their website.
Addressing reporters amid the BJP’s stunning comeback in the state after initial trends indicated a victory for Congress, Hooda said: “We are getting a majority. A wrong perception is being created. We are winning many seats but they [EC] are not updating. We are winning several constituencies like Adampur, Jhajjar, and Rohtak. I would like appeal to counting agents to stay firm at the counting centres.”
He added: “We are getting to know that Congress is leading in 10 seats but EC has stopped counting and is not updating the numbers in those constituencies.” The Congress on Tuesday filed a formal complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) about a delay in publishing the results of the Haryana assembly election, with Ramesh calling the tactics “mind games.” The charge came after a dramatic turnaround in which the ruling BJP clawed back to take a comfortable lead in the state after initial trends showed Congress leading.
The crux of the Congress argument was that the trends on the ECI website were way behind the actual counting and that the local administration could be under pressure. “Like the Lok Sabha elections, in Haryana, we are again witnessing slowing down of uploading up-to-date trends on the ECI website. Is the BJP trying to build pressure on administration by sharing outdated and misleading trends,” Mr Jairam Ramesh posted on X.
Responding to the charges, ECI said the allegations were baseless and the trends were being updated on the website constantly. The poll body also said during the Lok Sabha elections, it had responded to Abhishek Manu Singhvi when similar charges were levelled. Exit polls had predicted a loss for the BJP, which has ruled the northern state for two consecutive terms. The party was trailing in the initial trends but came back as the day progressed to take the lead.
Earlier in the day, the Congress had written a letter to the Election Commission, complaining of an “unexplained slowdown” in updating results for the Haryana election. “As you can imagine, this allows bad-faith actors to spin narratives that undermine the process. You can see examples of it already playing out on social media. Our fear is also that such narratives can then be used by these mala fide actors to influence processes where counting is still underway i.e. in most of the counting centres,” Mr Ramesh wrote.
The ECI dismissed the charges and said approximately 25 rounds across all constituencies were being updated every five minutes. In its response, the poll body also said it “unequivocally rejects your (Mr Ramesh’s) attempt to surreptitiously give credence to irresponsible, unfounded and uncorroborated malafide narratives.”
Addressing a press conference around 5 pm, Mr Ramesh said, “The results in Haryana are totally unexpected, completely surprising and counter-intuitive. It goes against the reality. It goes against what the people in Haryana had made their mind up for, which was for change and transformation. Under these circumstances, it is not possible for us to accept the results that have been announced today. What we have seen today in Haryana is a victory for manipulation, a victory for subverting the will of the people and it is a defeat for transparent, democratic processes. The chapter on Haryana is not complete.”
“All afternoon, I have been in touch with the Election Commission. They have replied to my complaints, I have replied to their reply. We have received very serious complaints about the process of counting and the functioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in at least three districts in Haryana. There are more that are coming in. This information is being collected and we hope to present this to the Election Commission today or the day after,” he added.
The Congress leader said, based on initial reports, there are at least 12-14 seats in Haryana, where serious questions have been raised by candidates, calling into question the integrity of the counting process and the functioning of the EVMs. On whether the party would take legal recourse, Mr Ramesh said the Election Commission is its first stop and it would take a call on what else needs to be done after that.
“There are serious questions on the integrity of the instruments of this system, namely EVMs, and the extraordinary pressure that has been brought to bear on local administration officials. Haryana has been a ‘double-engine’ government, so it was a ‘double-engine’ pressure. People who were leading with healthy margins have lost by 50, 100, 250 votes. This can be explained only by manipulation and pressure,” he fumed.
Mr Khera, who also addressed the press conference, said the party has received constant complaints from the Hisar, Mahendragarh and Panipat districts and cited the example of Narnaul candidate Rao Narender Singh.
“EVMs whose batteries were at 99% had results which went against us and those that weren’t touched and had batteries at 60-70%, which is natural, had our candidates winning. Our candidates have also submitted complaints to the returning officers. We will approach the Election Commission soon.”
“We haven’t said all the machines are defective. We haven’t even said all machines in Haryana are defective. But where there has been manipulation… You tell me: these machines have been lying for so long, how can all of them have standard 99% battery? It’s not like the complaints started in the afternoon, they were made even before a result came. Rao Narender Singh and our Panipat candidate had started calling us even when the leads were in our favour,” Mr Khera added.
Significantly, after the exit polls had predicted a comfortable victory for the Congress, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini had said the BJP would form a government in the state for the third straight time and predicted that the Congress would blame EVMs.