“We do not know who is advising or guiding the honourable commission, but it seems that it has forgotten that it is a body set up under the Constitution and charged with the discharge of certain crucial functions—both administrative and quasijudicial,” it said.The party said that EC gave a non-reply to Congress’ specific complaints in 20 Vidhan Sabha constituencies in Haryana.“The answer given to the question of the machines’ fluctuating batteries seeks to confuse rather than clarify. At any rate, the EC reply is nothing more than a standard and generic set of bullets on how the machines function rather than a specific clarification. While our complaints were specific, the EC response is generic and focused on diminishing the complaints and the petitioners,” it said.“If the commission is refusing to grant us a hearing or refusing to engage on certain complaints (which it has done in the past) then the law allows recourse to the higher courts’ extraordinary jurisdiction to compel the EC to discharge this function (as happened in 2019),” the letter said.The Congress leaders, who had petitioned the EC alleging irregularities in the polls, said every reply from the EC now seems to be laced with ad-hominem attacks on either individual leaders or the party itself.The leaders said the Congress’ communications confine themselves to issues and are written with a regard for the high office of the CEC and his brother commissioners. “However, the EC’s replies are written in a tone that is condescending. If the current EC’s goal is to strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality, then it is doing a remarkable job at creating that impression,” the party said in its letter to the EC.
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