Election Commission rejects Congress’s Haryana poll charge, terms them ‘baseless, misplaced’

The  Election Commission of India (ECI) has rejected the major allegations levelled by the Congress birthday party over the irregularities within the new Haryana elections, calling them “baseless, misplaced, and devoid of facts.” The commission, in a letter to Congress, requested the grand-old-birthday party leaders to refrain from making such unfolded claims after every election. It also accused the birthday party of making “generic” doubts without any evidence.

The ECI advised Congress to take strong steps to prevent such behaviour, warning that baseless accusations at some point of sensitive times like polling and counting days may well lead to public unrest and chaos.

EC has advised the grand-old-birthday party to adopt strong steps to curb this

Highlighting 5 specific cases from the past year, the ECI urged the Congress, a national birthday party with significant experience, to exercise due diligence and keep away from habitual, evidence-free criticism of electoral operations.

Following a thorough re-verification by Returning Officers of all 26 Assembly Constituencies in question, the ECI wrote to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, putting forward that every step within the Haryana electoral process became flawless and conducted lower than the observation of Congress candidates or their agents.

The Commission’s response to the Congress, comprising 1642 pages of evidence, detailed the continuous presence of authorized representatives of Congress candidates in any respect stages, including battery placement on the time of commissioning and at some point of the polling and counting processes.

Addressing Congress’s concerns in regards to the EVM battery display, the ECI clarified that the battery voltage and capacity are irrelevant to the EVMs’ vote-counting functionality and integrity.

“The battery status displayed on the Control Unit serves simplest to help technical teams in monitoring power levels to verify smooth operation at some point of polling,” it said.

The poll body brushed aside any suggestion that battery levels may well influence balloting outcomes as preposterous. Additionally, the ECI has published a detailed FAQ on its site online covering quite a sort of aspects of EVM battery use, including battery types, the usage of alkaline cells, differences between EVM power packs and cell batteries, EVM functionality self reliant of operating voltage, and explanations for why the power p.c. status once in a while reads 99 per cent even after a full day of polling.

The ECI strongly cautioned against making false generalizations and unfounded allegations against EVMs, which have many times withstood scrutiny in judicial forums and serve as the backbone of India’s balloting system. The Commission pointed out instances where the Congress has singled out routine aspects of EVM functioning or electoral procedures and cast them as new issues.

Citing forty two judgments from Constitutional Courts which have examined these matters and affirmed faith in EVMs, the ECI reiterated the robustness of India’s electronic balloting system, which has facilitated diverse political outcomes across elections.

After the outcomes for the Haryana Assembly elections were revealed, a gathering took place. This became no ordinary meeting, in general, it became a gathering of eminent Congress leaders like KC Venugopal, Ashok Gehlot, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken, and Bhupinder Singh Hooda with Election Commission representatives. They didn’t arrive empty-handed but came bearing an inventory of 20 concerns, seven among them were actual complaints straight from some constituency corridors. Their eyebrows were raised over an irregularity within the energy levels of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). On the day of counting, some machines boasted a full 99 percent battery, while others stuttered between 60 and 70 percent. Unsettled by these differences, the Congress birthday party stood firm, insisting to seal the machines and safeguard them until a deeper investigation became conducted.

(With ANI Inputs)