Congress again approaches Election Commission over Haryana polls

The Congress on Friday submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission of India alleging irregularities in the polling process across 20 assembly constituencies in Haryana on October 5.

The detailed memorandum follows an earlier representation by the party on October 9, when concerns regarding electronic voting machines were first raised.

In Friday’s memorandum, the party has added details concerning the malfunctioning of EVMs, like battery capacity failures affected the counting of votes on October 8 in several constituencies, subsequently affecting the integrity of the Haryana elections. Further, the party urged the Election Commission to take swift action.

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“We have now submitted an updated memo highlighting serious and glaring irregularities in the election process,” senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said after submitting the memorandum to EC on Friday.

“We hope that the Election Commission will take notice and issue the appropriate directives,” he said.

In its first memorandum, the party registered its complaints regarding specific constituencies.

In the updated memorandum, the Congress has expanded the list of constituencies where problems were reported from the initial seven to 20 — Narnaul, Karnal, Dabwali, Rewari, Hodal (SC), Kalka, Panipat City, Indri, Badkhal, Faridabad NIT, Nalwa, Rania, Pataudi (SC), Palwal, Ballabhgarh, Barwala, Uchana Kalan, Gharaunda, Kosli, and Badshahpur.

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The party has also requested that the Election Commission take immediate steps to seal all EVMs from the affected constituencies to prevent further tampering. It stressed that investigations should be conducted in a time-bound manner to ensure that the election results reflect the true will of the people.

The complaint comes days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a third consecutive victory in Haryana despite 10 years of anti-incumbency. The BJP won 48 seats in the 90-member House, defying exit polls that had predicted a significant win for the opposition. The Congress, on the other hand, secured 37 seats. Three independents and two Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidates also registered victories.

The Congress said assembly polls results were “unexpected”.