NEW DELHI: Strongly refuting the Congress’ charges of irregularities in the recently concluded Haryana assembly polls, the Election Commission of India on Tuesday termed them ‘baseless and devoid of facts’. Formally responding to a slew of representations by the Congress leveling charges of ‘irregularities’, the ECI in a letter to the AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined its findings, asserting that each stage of the electoral process was meticulously conducted under the observation of his party’s candidates or their agents in the democratic processes.“The Commission categorically rejects all baseless allegations and apprehensions conveyed by INC regarding all aspects of the electoral process in the recently concluded election to the state assembly of Haryana,” the ECI said in its statement.The poll panel went on to add: “It normally refrains from responding to grievances relating to constituency specific decentralised electoral processes, whether in case of electoral roll or candidates or deployment of man and material or conduct of poll or counting, as officials like ERO/ RO/DEO are fully empowered election authorities.”The ECI, however, contended that it was duty bound to protect and defend “the integrity of the core design of this statutory decentralised scheme, that is being sought to be eroded or duplicated, by ‘generic’ petitions/grievances setting out false narratives without any evidence whatsoever”, which are being raised in proximity to polling or counting day and these have serious potential to fuel the surcharged environment.
Source link
