EC rejects Congress allegations on Haryana polls: ‘Frivolous, unfounded doubts’

The Congress had made several complaints to the EC, including allegations of a slowdown in the vote counting process of Haryana elections

The Election Commission of India on Tuesday rejected the Congress's allegations of irregularities in the Haryana assembly elections, calling them “baseless, misplaced and devoid of facts”.

The poll panel has also warned the grand old party, asking it to refrain from “baseless allegations” election after election.

“ECI is duty bound to protect and defend the integrity of the core design of this statutory decentralized scheme, that is being sought to be eroded or duplicated, by “generic” petitions/grievances setting out false narratives without any evidence whatsoever, raised in proximity to polling or counting day, which have serious potential to fuel the surcharged environment,” the poll panel said in a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

The EC accused Congress of “persistently raising unfounded doubts on the core aspects of Indian electoral process

What Congress had alleged?

The Congress had made several complaints to the EC, including allegations of a slowdown in the vote counting process on October 8, the day results of the Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir elections were declared.

The grand old party had also sought clarification on display of 99% battery status on the control units (CU) of electronic voting machines (EVM), during counting in some polling stations of 26 assembly constituencies.

EC's response to Cong allegations

Citing examples in the past one year, the EC accused Congress of “persistently raising unfounded doubts on the core aspects of Indian electoral process, with a sort of discernable pattern of timelines and approach.”

The EC warned against “frivolous” and “unfounded doubts” which it said have the potential of creating “turbulence” when crucial steps like polling and counting are in live play, a time when both public and political parties’ anxiousness is peaking.

“The communications carrying baseless allegations were often widely publicized by INC even before receipt of any formal letter in the ECI and mostly coinciding with peak of electoral cycle i.e., near to or on poll day or counting day,” the poll panel said in its scathing letter.

“The persistence of this approach is disconcerting when it emanates from a reputed National Political Party of historic standing with those many years of experience in the electoral field.”

“Thus, once again ECI is compelled to note that with no evidence whatsoever of any statutory electoral step being compromised and candidate’s consent to proceed to each next stage being on record; the INC has once again raised the smoke of a “generic” doubt about the credibility of an entire electoral outcome exactly in similar manner as it has done in recent past, of which examples have been given in preceding paras,” the Election Commission stated.

“This is least expected of a national political party. The Commission appreciates the criticality of the considered views of political parties in sustaining and strengthening electoral democracy in the country and assures that it will remain committed towards timely grievance redressal,” it added.