State Vote
Congress alleges tampering in 20 Haryana assembly seats
This story was originally published at 21:09 IST on 9 October 2024
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NEW DELHI – A delegation of the opposition Indian National Congress Wednesday gave a formal complaint to the Election Commission of India of tampering with electronic voting machines and manipulation during counting in at least 20 assembly constituencies in Haryana.
The Congress lost the assembly election in the state for a third successive time Tuesday. Spokesperson Pawan Khera said the party raised the issue of tampering before the commission and submitted written complaints with evidence received from seven districts-–Karnal, Dabwali, Rewari, Panipat City, Hodal, Kalka, and Narnaul.
"We have sought 48 hours' time from the commission to submit supporting material pertaining to the remaining 13 constituencies," Khera said. "Our state unit has been collecting proofs regarding machine tampering." The delegation also requested the commission to seal the machines of the 20 constituencies till the probe is completed.
Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the Congress was leading during the counting of postal ballots but fell behind the Bharatiya Janata Party when counting of votes polled through electronic voting machines began. Haryana Congress President Uday Bhan alleged that returning officers refused the request of party candidates to match the voter verifiable paper audit trail slips with the numbers given by the machines.
The party alleged that the batteries of the tampered machines showed 99% power while the batteries of "normal" machines were at around 70%. Khera said the commission assured the delegation it would look into the matter and give a written reply on each issue after consulting the returning officers concerned.
The Congress won 37 of the 90 seats in the Haryana Legislative Assembly. The BJP won 48 to record a historic third win. The Congress termed the results "completely surprising, unexpected, and unacceptable". Polling for the 90 seats was held Saturday. Exit polls had predicted the Congress winning at least 50 seats. End
Reported by Kuldeep Singh
Edited by Rajeev Pai
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