Election Commission Junks Congress' Allegation On Haryana Vote Counting: 'Uncorroborated Malafide Narratives'

The Election Commission has rejected Congress' "ill-founded allegation" of delays in publishing leads and results for the 2024 Haryana Assembly election on its website.

In a brief, strongly-worded statement released this afternoon, which included a timeline of data publication for both Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, the poll panel said it "unequivocally rejects your attempt to surreptitiously give credence to irresponsible, unfounded and uncorroborated malafide narratives."

Photo Credit: PTI

The Congress was told there is "nothing on record to substantiate your allegations."

The EC also reminded the Congress that it had made similar claims during the June vote count for the Lok Sabha election. It reiterated that today's vote counting "is unfolding in the presence of candidates, observers and micro-observers as per the rules."

Earlier today, the Congress filed a complaint, alleging an "unexplained slowdown in updating of results" on the EC's website for two hours until 11 am.

"As you can imagine this allows bad faith actors to spin out narratives that undermine the process. You can see examples of it already playing out on social media. Our fear is also that such narratives can then be used by these mala fide actors to influence processes where counting is still underway, i.e..."

"We request you to issue immediate directions to your officials to update the website with true and accurate figures, so that false news and malicious narratives can be countered immediately."

Just minutes earlier, Congress' Jairam Ramesh had said, "... we hope the Election Commission will answer our questions. The results of 10-11 rounds are out... but only four to five rounds are updated on the site." He also warned of those "trying to build pressure by sharing outdated and misleading trends."

Congress' Haryana Setback

The Congress took an early lead in Haryana as postal votes were counted, only for the BJP to make a dramatic comeback late in the morning as ballot boxes were opened. The ruling party then surged ahead, holding its lead; by 2.30 pm, the BJP had secured 50 seats, four more than the majority needed.

Early celebrations at the Congress' Delhi headquarters were abruptly paused as the party-poised to win the first Jammu and Kashmir election in a decade-faced the prospect of a third consecutive defeat in Haryana.

Kumari Selja, a senior Congress leader and contender for the chief ministerial position in Haryana, told NDTV the Election Commission would "have to answer" the question raised.

"Why is the counting going slowly? It was fine during the Lok Sabha election... so why is the counting going slowly now? It is the responsibility of the EC to tell the world why counting has slowed," she said.

However, Ramesh maintained the party's optimism, saying, "There is no need to be disheartened..." and "Mind games are being played. There is no need to be disheartened. We are going to get the mandate. Congress will form the government."

BJP's Response

BJP's Sudhanshu Trivedi responded quickly, stating the Congress' complaints signalled an "acceptance of defeat." "If Congress has started pointing fingers at Election Commission, then we should understand they have accepted defeat," he said to reporters. "Per current trends, I feel we are moving to an important win and Congress has started taking precautionary measures for future defeat."

In June, the Congress had made similar complaints during the general election vote count, with Ramesh implying that the poll panel may have received "orders" to slow down the process. On that occasion, he highlighted delays in publishing results for constituencies in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, regions where the BJP and its ally Janata Dal (United) faced stiff competition from the Congress-led INDIA bloc.