'EVMs with 99% battery...': Why Congress refuses to accept Haryana election verdict

Ramesh alleged disparity between counting and updates being shown on the EC’s website

The election results in Haryana are unexpected and shocking, said the Congress on Tuesday hours after leads for it turned into a victory for the BJP.

"...The results in Haryana are totally unexpected, completely surprising and counter-intuitive. It goes against ground reality. It goes against what the people of Haryana had made their minds up for, which was for change and transformation. I think under these circumstances, it is not possible for us to accept the results that have been announced today," said Congress MP Jairam Ramesh.

According to Ramesh, the Congress  has received very serious complaints on the process of counting, the functioning of EVMs in at least three districts. There are more that are coming in. “We have spoken to our senior colleagues in Haryana and this information is being collected. We hope to present this in a consolidated form to the Election Commission tomorrow or the day after. We will seek time...Serious questions have been raised by our candidates. We will bring it to the notice of the Election Commission and what we have seen today in Haryana is a victory for manipulation, a victory for subverting the will of the people and it is a defeat for transparent democratic processes,” said Ramesh while addressing a press conference.

Congress leader Pawan Kehra said the EVM machines that had 99% battery showed that the party was losing, but the machines that had lower batteries showed it was winning. “EVM is manipulated in some parts of Haryana,” he said.

Earlier, in the day, Ramesh wrote to the Election Commission, claiming there has been an “inordinate and unacceptable delay in updating trends for the Haryana assembly elections”.

The Congress questioned a “slowdown” in updating trends for the Haryana elections on the poll panel website. They questioned whether the BJP was trying to exert pressure on the administration by sharing “outdated” and “misleading” trends.

Here is my letter to @ECISVEEP on the inordinate and unacceptable delay in updating trends in the Haryana assembly elections pic.twitter.com/Lvq747seTz
Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) October 8, 2024

In a post on X, Jairam Ramesh, stated, “Like the Lok Sabha elections, in Haryana we are again witnessing slowing down of uploading up-to-date trends on the ECI website. Is the BJP trying to build pressure on the administration by sharing outdated and misleading trends @ECISVEEP?”

Ramesh also submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission, requesting it to issue immediate directions to its officials to update the website "with true and accurate figures so that the false news and malicious narratives can be countered immediately".

BJP National spokesperson, Sudhanshu Trivedi said, “If Jairam Ramesh has already started saying this and pointing fingers at Election Commission, then we should understand that they have accepted their defeat...as per the trends going on, I feel that we are moving towards an important victory and Congress has started taking precautionary measures for their future defeat.”