The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday wrote a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge over remarks made by him and other party leaders on the outcome of the Haryana Assembly elections.
Kharge, who is also the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, on Tuesday said the outcome of the Haryana polls was unexpected. Earlier in the day, party general secretary in-charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh and its chairman of Media and Publicity Department, Pawan Khera said they can not accept the Haryana results and it as victory of “manipulation” by the ruling BJP.
In the letter addressed to the Congress chief, NT Bhutia, principal secretary of the EC, wrote, “I am directed to refer to the widely reported statement made by Jairam Ramesh, MP and Pawan Khera on 8th October, which seemingly made an assertion, in the context of the recently concluded election to the Legislative Assembly of Haryana, to the effect that election results are unacceptable.”
“Such an unprecedented statement 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 Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana,” the senior poll panel official said.
Referring to Kharge’s statement on state polls, he said, “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.” Informing that EC is in receipt of a request seeking a meeting time of a 12- member official Congress delegation, including Ramesh and Khera, the senior EC official said, “Proceeding on a fair assumption that the statement of the party president is the formal party position on the electoral outcome, the EC has agreed to meet the delegation today at 6 pm in the Nirvachan Sadan.”
Notably, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday called the outcome of the Haryana elections unexpected and said the party will continue to raise the issues concerning the public.
Reacting to Congress’s performance in the Haryana elections, Gandhi, in a post on X wrote, “We are analysing the unexpected result of Haryana. Will inform the Election Commission (EC) about the complaints from many Assembly constituencies.”
The BJP retained power in Haryana by sweeping the Assembly elections. The party won 48 seats out of the 90 Assembly constituencies. The Opposition Congress which was eyeing to return to power, won 37 seats.