The Congress has approached the Chief Election Commissioner alleging that there was an unexplained slowdown in updating of results on the Election Commission's (EC) website. This comes as the Congress witnessed an unexpected setback in the Haryana Assembly Elections. The party which had a comfortable lead in the morning later trailed, with BJP clearing the majority mark.
As per the complaint, there was a delay in publishing of results on the EC website between 9 am and 11 am. "This allows bad-faith actors to spin narratives that undermine the process," the letter said, adding that such narratives are already doing rounds on social media.
"Our fear is that such narratives can be used by these malafide actors to influence processes where counting is still underway. i.e. in most counting centres. We request you to issue immediate directions to its officials to update the website with true and accurate figures so that the false news and malicious narratives can be countered immediately," the letter signed by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said.
Ramesh had earlier accused the BJP governments in the state and Centre of sharing outdated and misleading trends. "Like the Lok Sabha elections, in Haryana, we are again witnessing a slowing down of uploading up-to-date trends on the ECI website. Is the BJP trying to build pressure on the administration by sharing outdated and misleading trends?" he added.
Congress leader Pawan Khera too alleged there was a mismatch in the actual number of rounds counted and the number of rounds being shown on television through the Election Commission data.
"The EC data is lagging behind, they are still showing 4th or the 5th found data while 11 rounds have been counted," he
Meanwhile, BJP Haryana leadership has rubbished the claims. Former Minister and BJP leader Anil Vijj called the allegations venting out.
BJP national spokesperson Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi hit out at the Congress for raising the allegations. "If Jairam Ramesh has already started saying this and pointing fingers at Election Commission, then we should understand that they have accepted their defeat. As per the trends going on, I feel that we are moving towards an important victory and Congress has started taking precautionary measures for their future defeat," he alleged.