The friction between the country's largest Opposition party and the Election Commission of India showed no sign of abating on Tuesday as the Haryana Assembly poll results declared a surprise victory for the BJP.

The Congress took exception to the “tone and tenor” of the poll body’s reply to its complaint of an "unexplained slowdown" in updating of results of Haryana elections on the commission’s website and urged it to direct officials to update accurate figures so that "false news and malicious narratives" could be countered immediately.

The Election Commission told Congress leader Jairam Ramesh that there was nothing on record to substantiate his "ill-founded allegation". The poll panel also dubbed his allegations as an attempt to "surreptitiously give credence to irresponsible, unfounded and uncorroborated mala fide narratives".

In response, Ramesh shot off another letter.

“We have received your response and are appalled at the defensive tone and tenor taken in the letter,” the Congress leader wrote.

“Not only is the reply completely hostile in nature, it degrades the conversational level to an unacceptable low, which itself is surprising for a body supposed to be neutral and impartial and it misrepresents crucial facts in a vein similar to that done by the ruling party,” he wrote.

“First, it is an undeniable fact, and one that can be established with the ECI's own data, that at the time of the representation for several seats the Pages were displaying rounds at 3/4.

“This was an observation made independently by numerous individuals both on television and on social media. Yet the ECI acts as if it is the INC spreading a malicious narrative.

“Second, we have documented all our complaints to the ECI, and have catalogued the ECI's action on them,” he added.

“When we make complaints, we do so on the basis of credible information received or data. We annex several documents to support our claims and in the hearings granted present those for scrutiny.

“The ECI's own published data attests that they have acted on the bulk of our complaints thereby implying that we were not unreasonable or unfair in our prayers to the ECI.

“Furthermore, by the warped logic of this reply, no complaint can ever be raised before the ECI lest the ECI turn its hostile fury and name and shame the complainant.

“The ECI makes a reference to a previous complaint to try and diminish the current concern. Not only is this misguided but the ECI does not cover itself in glory when it takes such a line. For the sake of the ECI's reputation, we will leave it at that.

“The CEC must take a call if he stands by such inappropriate words. For the sake of neutrality and a level playing field, which I may remind you is your constitutional duty, we hope that such a reply to any political party, and especially the principal opposition party in Parliament, is not repeated,” Ramesh signed off.