'Undemocratic Rejection Of the Will of the People': ECI Tells Kharge Over Party’s ‘Unacceptable’ Haryana Results Remark

Congress leaders said the complaints received from Hisar, Mahendragarh and Panipat pointed out that there were EVMs with 99% battery on which the BJP won while units with 60-70% battery saw the Congress win. (PTI Photo)

While dismissing the party's statement, the poll body, in the letter, has also agreed to meet a 12-member delegation of the Congress at 6 pm on Wednesday on the request of the party

A day after the Congress called the Haryana assembly election results “unacceptable”, the Election Commission of India on Wednesday wrote to the party president Mallikarjun Kharge calling the statement “unprecedented” and “undemocratic rejection” of the will of the people.

While dismissing the statement, the poll body, in the letter, has also agreed to meet a 12-member delegation of the Congress at 6 pm on Wednesday on the request of the party that approached the ECI with its complaints and grievances.

Referring to the statements made by party MPs Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera on Tuesday after the results were declared, that “election results are unacceptable”, the poll body said such an unprecedented statement in a generic sense is “unheard in the rich democratic heritage of the country”.

The ECI also said that the statement 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.”

Further, the Commission said that it has noted the fact that the Congress party has proposed to analyse the same and approach the ECI with its complaints and grievances.

“The ECI is now in receipt of a request seeking a meeting time of a 12 member official INC delegation, including those members, who made the statement… Proceeding on a fair assumption that the statement of the Party President is the formal party position on the electoral outcome, the ECI has agreed to meet the delegation today at 6 PM in the Sukumar Sen Hall (seventh floor), Nirvachan Sadan,” it said.

Speaking to the media after the results on Tuesday, Khera had said the results were unexpected and unacceptable to the party. He said the party kept receiving complaints about irregularities in the counting of votes.

‘”If it is said in one line, this is the victory of the system and the defeat of democracy. We cannot accept this…We are collecting complaints. Our candidates have given complaints to the returning officers there and are still giving them. In the coming days, we will soon go to the Election Commission with all these complaints and register our complaint there,” he had said.

Congress MP and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, too, said the party will inform the EC about complaints from the workers. “We are analysing the unexpected results of Haryana. We will inform the Election Commission about the complaints coming from many assembly constituencies,” he wrote on X.

Earlier on Tuesday, while counting was underway, Ramesh accused that, like the April-June Lok Sabha elections, there is again a slowing down of uploading up-to-date trends on Haryana on the ECI website. “Is the BJP trying to build pressure on administration by sharing outdated and misleading trends @ECISVEEP?” he said. He also wrote to the ECI regarding the same.

Responding to him, the poll body wrote a letter saying around 25 rounds across all the assembly constituencies are being updated every five minutes, testifying to the dissemination of the counting process in a speedy manner.