'Given itself a clean chit': Congress after ECI decries allegations of irregularities in Haryana assembly polls

The Congress on Friday responded to the Election Commission of India (ECI) days after the poll body decried the grand old party's allegations of irregularities in Haryana assembly elections as 'baseless'. The Congress said in a recent letter to the EC that the poll body has given itself a clean chit with its reply. 

The letter was signed by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Haryana Congress chief Uday Bhan, Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal, Ashok Gehlot, Ajay Maken, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Jairam Ramesh, and Pawan Khera. 

"Not surprisingly, the ECI has given a clean chit to yourself. We would normally have let it be at that. However, the tone and tenor of the ECI's response, the language used, and the allegations made against the INC compel us to submit the counter-response," the party said. 

Sharpening its attack on the ECI, the Congress said that the poll body's replies seem to "be laced with ad-hominem attacks on either individual leaders or the party itself."

Calling the ECI's responses condescending, the party said: "If the current ECI's goal is to strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality, then it is doing a remarkable job at creating that impression. Judges who write decisions do not attack or demonise the party raising the issues."

The party also said that it will have no choice but to take legal recourse to get these remarks expunged if the ECI persists.

It also said that the ECI's response evokes confusion instead of clarity, while adding it is nothing more than a standard and generic list of bullet points on how the machines function rather than a specific clarification on the party's specific complaints. 

Earlier this week, the ECI urged the Congress and other political parties to refrain from making "unfolded and sensational complaints" during critical periods such as polling and counting days.

The poll body said such actions could incite public unrest, create unnecessary turbulence and disrupt social order. 

The ECI's response came after the Congress raised concerns over the display of a 99 per cent battery status on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the counting process. The Congress said that the 99 per cent battery status raised suspicions of potential tampering. 

The grand old party accused authorities and deliberately delaying the counting process.