The Congress Fact-Finding Committee has released its interim report on the BJP’s victory and the Congress’ unexpected defeat in the Haryana Assembly elections blaming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), EVM and the Election Commission (EC) for electoral rigging.
The eight-member committee headed by former minister Karan Singh Dalal alleged that the BJP influenced the election results by hacking electronic voting machines (EVMs) in at least 27 urban assembly constituencies.
“BJP did not hack EVMs in entire Haryana, but it was done in urban areas. In rural areas, people often know who others are voting for, but in urban areas, political preferences are not clear”, he alleged. He also alleged that non-availability of mandatory 17-A and 17-C forms by the ECI (Election Commission) raises questions over the transparency of the election process.
Dalal alleged that the Election Commission did not give the total number of votes received by the candidates and published only percentage figures. “The Election Commission declared the polling percentage as 61.19 per cent on polling day, October 5 at 7 pm. At 11:45 pm, it became 65.65 per cent and at 8:46 am on October 7, it reached 67.90 per cent”, he added.
Dalal also raised questions on BJP’s vote share saying, “There are 2.03 crore registered voters in Haryana. According to the Election Commission, the total polling was 67.90 per cent, that is, 1.38 crore votes were cast. If BJP’s vote share is 39.94 per cent, then they should have got 55.19 lakh votes. But according to the Commission’s website, BJP got 55.48 lakh votes. This figure is wrong, and Congress’ vote share was also affected.”
Dalal said that of the 44 seats, where BJP won 37, their strike rate was 84.09 per cent, while of the remaining 46 seats, BJP won only 11, with a strike rate of 23.91 per cent.
“How can there be such huge differences?”
After the election results, Congress had complained to the Election Commission alleging irregularities in 20 assembly constituencies, of which BJP won 18, he asked. The commission dismissed these allegations as “smear of suspicion over the electoral process”. Congress on Monday again levelled allegations on the matter, including that “EVM batteries were showing 99 per cent charge at the end of polling”.
Dalal said, “EVM is like a calculator and its use should discharge the battery. But the commission is saying that these batteries are special, which get charged during use. This is unbelievable.” Congress has made it clear that it will raise these issues in Haryana and at the national level.
The party says that there should be an impartial investigation into these discrepancies so that the public’s faith in the electoral process remains intact.
The fact finding committee of the Congress was formed by the party leadership after it faced humiliating defeat as the BJP won 48 out of 90 seats and Congress won 37 seats, while the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) won two and independent candidates won three seats
