NEW DELHI: A day after Congress refused to accept the Haryana verdict, dubbing it “unexpected and unacceptable”, top party functionaries met EC and submitted a memorandum demanding a thorough probe even as the poll panel slammed Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera. In a letter to party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, EC said the “unprecedented statement (by Ramesh and Khera)…unheard of in the rich democratic heritage of the country, is far from a legitimate part of free speech and expression and moves towards an undemocratic rejection of the will of the people…”
The standoff between Election Commission and Congress intensified on Wednesday. A day after Congress, in a first for a national party, refused to accept the Haryana verdict dubbing it “unexpected and unacceptable”, top party leaders met the EC and submitted a memorandum demanding a thorough probe even as the poll panel slammed Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera for their “unprecedented” statement that the results were “unacceptable”, saying it amounted to “undemocratic rejection of the will of the people”.
A Congress delegation comprising former CMs Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Ashok Gehlot and party leaders K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken and Pawan Khera and Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan met the EC and demanded that all the machines for which complaints have been made should be sealed and secured till the inquiry was completed. Senior party leader Abhishek Singhvi joined the meeting online.
The poll panel made a distinction between the statements of Congress spokespersons Ramesh and Khera and party president Mallikarjun Kharge’s response to the result. Unlike the two spokespersons, Kharge refrained from rejecting the result, limiting himself to describing it as “unexpected”. EC said it agreed to hear the Congress delegation on EVM grievances only because it considered the party president’s position not rejecting the outcome, and not that of the two spokespersons, to be the party’s official stance.
In a strongly-worded letter to Kharge, EC said the “unprecedented statement (by Ramesh and Khera)… in a generic sense, unheard in the rich democratic heritage of India, is far from a legitimate part of free speech and expression and moves towards an undemocratic rejection of the will of the people expressed in accordance with the statutory and regulatory electoral framework, uniformly applied across all polls in the country, including J&K and Haryana”.
The stand taken by Jairam and Khera had raised many eyebrows as no national party had so far outright rejected polls, something which is a regular feature in many countries.
Though Congress said EVM issues were raised in seven assembly constituencies with no action taken by the returning officer (RO), EC sources told TOI that six complaints were received during counting in Haryana, of which only one related to discrepancy in the battery life of EVMs. “All these complaints were disposed of by RO before declaration of the results. Congress candidates concerned signed the result sheet. Yet, they are now flooding EC with complaints,” an EC functionary said.
As per Section 81 of Representation of the People’s Act, 1951, once the result is declared by the RO, it can only be challenged by filing an election petition in the high court within 45 days. “All parties are well versed with these provisions but end up publicly making EVMs or EC the fall guy to build a narrative and cover up their electoral defeat. This noise is rarely followed up with election petitions,” a former legal advisor to EC said.
Barely 92 election petitions were filed within the 45-day timeframe after 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as against 138 filed post the 2019 LS polls.
In its memorandum addressed to the chief election commissioner, Congress said, “During counting of votes for Haryana, a glaring discrepancy was discovered by INC candidates and their respective polling agents related to the battery charge/health/capacity of the EVM machines.”