ECI Dismisses Congress’ Allegations of Delayed Haryana Poll Results as “Baseless” Amid BJP’s Path to Victory

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday firmly rejected the Congress party’s complaint regarding an alleged “inordinate and unacceptable” delay in updating Haryana Assembly election trends on the poll body’s website. The ECI described the complaint as an attempt to “surreptitiously give credence to irresponsible, unfounded, and uncorroborated malafide narratives.”

“There is nothing on record to substantiate your ill-founded allegation of a slowdown in updating results,” the ECI responded to Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s memorandum, pointing out that no specific evidence or details regarding any affected constituencies were provided by the party.

The ECI further highlighted that this was not the first time such concerns were raised by Congress. A similar complaint was made by the party during the announcement of national election results on June 4. The commission emphasized that the counting process in Haryana was transparent and conducted in the presence of candidates, observers, and micro-observers. “Approximately 25 rounds across all constituencies are being updated every five minutes,” the ECI clarified.

The Commission’s firm response came as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) appeared poised to retain power in Haryana for a third consecutive term, despite earlier exit polls predicting that Congress would form the next government in the northern state.

In an “Urgent Memorandum” addressed to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, Jairam Ramesh had complained of an unexplained two-hour slowdown in the update of election trends on the ECI website between 9 and 11 AM. Ramesh expressed concern that such delays allowed “bad faith actors” to spin misleading narratives, which could undermine the electoral process. He also pointed out examples of such narratives already circulating on social media and warned that these could potentially influence ongoing vote counting in various constituencies.

The ECI, however, dismissed these concerns as baseless, reaffirming the integrity and transparency of the counting process.