Three weeks after the Congress alleged a breach of integrity in EVMs in several constituencies in Haryana, the Election Commission replied to the party and its candidates warning them against fear-mongering.
The BJP was re-elected in the state earlier this month.
Congress communications head and MP Jairam Ramesh had said on October 8: “We are not accepting the results because serious issues have been raised about the integrity of the counting process and the functioning of the EVMs in at least three districts….”
The next day, a party delegation told the poll body that many EVMs showed 99 per cent battery life during counting, while others showed 60 to 70 per cent. The party submitted 26 separate complaints. The replies of the 26 returning officers (ROs) to each candidate who complained run up to 1,642 pages and have been uploaded on the website of Haryana’s chief electoral officer.
The EC said in its reply to the Congress on Tuesday, reproduced verbatim:
- The ROs have not found any evidence of any wrongdoing in any electoral processes. The replies reflect continuous participation of Congress candidates, representatives and their agents in various processes of election, including EVM processes
- Nineteen representations do not even mention at what point in time the battery was showing 99 per cent capacity, how it had a bearing on the results and whether any complaint was made at any stage before the declaration of the results
- The ROs have listed 10-12 stages where candidates/ authorised agents have participated in the process and have attached minutes signed by various candidates/ their authorised agents
- The ROs have in particular given details of the participation of authorised agents of the candidates with documentary evidence, from the day of commissioning of machines, when batteries were installed around seven to eight days before the polls, till the counting process was over to show that handling of EVMs without the presence of authorised representative of the candidate is an absolute impossibility. That is perhaps the reason that no complaints were raised till the counting process was over
- All complaints are too general, kind of one-pager, as if candidates filed these under some ‘common’ direction