India’s poll body rejects Opposition’s ‘baseless’ allegations of irregularities in Haryana polls

India’s top election body on Tuesday (Oct 29) rubbished the Congress party’s allegations of irregularities in the recent polls in Haryana state. The Election Commission of India said the Congress party is raising smoke of ‘generic doubts,’ stressing that each step in the whole process was carried out flawlessly.

“After a thorough reverification by Returning officers of all the 26 Assembly Constituencies under question, ECI writes to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge that each step in electoral process in Haryana was flawless and done under the watch of Congress candidates or agents,” the ECI said in a letter.

The election body also warned the political parties against making ‘baseless’ allegations which can cause issues in the country.

“It is needless to remind that such frivolous and unfounded doubts have the potential of creating turbulence when crucial steps like polling and counting are in live play, a time when both public and political parties’ anxiousness is peaking,” the ECI warned.

The poll body also stressed that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used in the process are totally “un-hackable.”

Congress party, which suffered a shocking defeat in Haryana, earlier alleged that the EVMs which showed BJP winning were 99 per cent charged, whereas those showing Congress in lead were 60-70 per cent charged.

The ECI had then responded that it was a technical feature to help electoral officers assess the power levels in each machine and that it had nothing to do with the poll results.

In India, the debate over EVM’s credibility is not new, despite victories by opposition parties in several states. The country’s Supreme Court had also rejected allegations of irregularities in the EVMs in the days leading up to general elections earlier this year.

“The Commission normally refrains from responding to grievances relating to constituency specific decentralised electoral processes, whether in case of electoral roll or candidates or deployment of man and material or conduct of poll or counting, officials like ERO/ RO/DEO being the fully empowered election authorities. However, ECI is duty bound to protect and defend the integrity of the core design of this statutory decentralized scheme, that is being sought to be eroded or duplicated, by ‘generic’ petitions/grievances setting out false narratives without any evidence whatsoever, raised in proximity to polling or counting day, which have serious potential to fuel the surcharged environment,” the ECI said in its letter .

(With inputs from agencies)