New Delhi, Oct 9 (FN Agency) The Election Commission of India (EC) on Wednesday wrote a strongly-worded letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge refuting the party’s allegations on suspected EVM tampering in Haryana Assembly elections in which the party lost to the BJP. The Commission in a letter said the Congress comments are “far from a legitimate part of free speech and expression”. After the BJP won a third successive term in Haryana on Tuesday, Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera described the election outcome as “unacceptable” and alleged EVM tampering. Ramesh said some candidates had noticed that on EVMs that had 99 per cent battery charge, the party had failed to get a majority of votes, while those with a charge of 60-70 per cent led to gains for the Congress.
In a reply to these allegations, ECI said, “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.” “The Commission has meanwhile noted the statements from your good self and the Leader of Opposition which have termed the Haryana results as ‘unexpected’ and that the INC proposes to analyse the same and approach the ECI with its complaints/grievances. 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,” the letter said. The ruling BJP secured a historic third term in Haryana, winning 48 seats. The Congress has won 37 seats, Independents won 3 and the INLD won 2 seats.