Coming down heavily on Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Election Commission dismissed his allegations around voter turnout data as “baseless” and said it could create an “anarchic situation, besides doubts and disharmony”.
“Through innuendos and insinuations, the contents of the post tend to create disharmony in respect of the delicate space of election management, can plant doubts in the mind of voters and political parties…” EC said. The poll panel said Kharge’s allegations was part of a “design in creating a false narrative” during the poll period.
In a strongly worded rebuttal, the poll panel said Kharge’s allegations in a letter to INDIA leaders and posted on social media was part of a “design in creating a false narrative” during the poll period and pointed out that no Congress candidates ever complained about the electoral roll, votes polled or filed any petition in the last three years based on any discrepancy in data. It said the charges were meant to “create confusion, misdirection and impediments in the conduct of free and fair polls”.
Refuting allegations of discrepancies, EC detailed the process to argue that there was no room for interference in the procedure and nothing could go unnoticed by the candidates or their representatives. It said political parties know the number of voters at every stage, with the booth-wise number available to candidates. Besides, it said, there was no scope for any deviation with the number of votes polled, which was recorded in Form 17C, and a signed copy was made available to candidates at the close of voting. Also, on the day of counting, the votes polled in the EVM were tallied with Form 17C in the presence of the candidates or their agents.
It said no instance of deviation from the norms was flagged by any Congress candidate in any of the 283 seats that went to the polls in the first three phases.
“A trend of irresponsible statements attacking or attempting to degrade the credibility of elections in terms of men and material by a national political party is disconcerting,” EC said.
Permanent blot on institution: Cong
Congress termed EC’s response to Kharge’s letter a “permanent blot” on the face of an institution which was there to “ensure a level playing field for all political parties”. Demanding transparency and promptitude from EC, an INDIA delegation met the poll panel and raised concerns over the delay in release of voter turnout data for the first two phases, and inaction on complaints of MCC by PM Modi and home minister Amit Shah. The delegation included Congress’ Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Salman Khurshid, TMC’s Derek O'Brien, DMK's T R Baalu, CPI’s Binoy Viswam, among others.
Attacking EC for its response, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “Both the content and intent of the letter will be a permanent blot on the reputation of an institution that can boast of luminaries like Sukumar Sen, T N Seshan, J M Lyngdoh and others.” He added that EC’s approach in addressing these issues was “deeply regrettable”.
