‘Unprecedented statement’: EC’s hard-hitting response to Congress allegations on Haryana results

The remarks made by Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera on the Haryana Assembly polls results were "far from a legitimate part of free speech and expression", the Election Commission said on Wednesday in a strongly-worded letter to party president Mallikarjun Kharge.

Ramesh and Khera, at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, had said the results were unacceptable to the party as they were against the “ground reality”, insinuating foul play in vote counting.

The poll body said such remarks are far from the legitimate part of free speech and expression and a rejection of the will of the people.

"Such an unprecedented statement as above in a generic sense, unheard 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 expressed in accordance with the Statutory and Regulatory electoral framework, uniformly applied across all elections in the country including J&K and Haryana,” it said.

The Commission, however, said it would meet a delegation of the Congress party on Wednesday evening to address the issue.

The BJP pulled off a comfortable majority in the state even as  early trends had shown Congress crossing the half-way mark. The saffron party won 48 seats in the 90-member assembly while the Congress bagged 37. 

Terming the results as “completely surprising and counter-intuitive”, the Congress leaders said they had received very serious complaints on the process of counting and the functioning of EVMs in at least three districts. 

They 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 it is said in one line, this is the victory of the system and the defeat of democracy,” Khera said.