The Congress party has rejected the Haryana Assembly elections results, saying the outcome is “totally unexpected” and “against ground reality”.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is all set to form government in the state for the third term even as early trends in the morning had shown Congress crossing the half-way mark. The saffron party won 48 seats in the 90-member assembly while the Congress is poised to win 37.
Notably, almost all the exit polls had predicted a comfortable victory for the Congress and an end to the 10-year-old BJP rule in the state.
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“The results in Haryana are totally unexpected, completely surprising and counter-intuitive. It goes against ground reality. It goes against what the people of Haryana had made their minds up for, which was for change and transformation. I think under these circumstances, it is not possible for us to accept the results that have been announced today," Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said.
He said the party has received very serious complaints on the process of counting and the functioning of EVMs in at least three districts. “We have spoken to our senior colleagues in Haryana and this information is being collected. We hope to present this in a consolidated form to the Election Commission tomorrow or the day after,” he said.
Another Congress leader Pawan Khera termed the results as the “defeat of democracy” and said the party cannot accept such an outcome.
"If it is said in one line, this is the victory of the system and the defeat of democracy,” he said.
The Congress party further alleged they had received complaints from Hisar, Mahendragarh and Panipat that there were EVMs with 99 per cent battery on which the BJP won while units with 60-70 per cent battery saw the Congress win.
“If this is not a conspiracy, then what is it?" Ramesh asked.
Earlier, the Congress had lodged a complaint with the poll panel, alleging attempts to slowdown the updating of results on the EC website. It also asked if the BJP governments were trying to build pressure on the local administration in Haryana districts.
The Commission, however, rejected the allegation, terming it as an attempt to “surreptitiously give credence to irresponsible, unfounded and uncorroborated malafide narratives".