NEW DELHI: In a letter written to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, the Election Commission of India on Wednesday strongly refuted the party’s allegations of tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the Haryana assembly elections. Addressing a press conference here after the results of the Haryana assembly elections were announced, Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said some candidates had noticed that on EVMs that had 99 percent battery charge, the party had lost, while those with a charge of 60-70 percent showed a victory for the Congress.The party also maintained that it would not accept the results, alleging a “conspiracy” through “manipulation” of EVMs.In its response, the poll panel in the letter to Kharge said, “Such an unprecedented statement as above in a generic sense, unheard in the rich democratic heritage of the country, is far from a legitimate part of free speech & expression and moves towards an undemocratic rejection of the will of the people expressed in accordance with the Statutory and Regulatory electoral framework, uniformly applied across all elections in the country including Jammu & Kashmir and Haryana.”The poll panel also noted that Kharge and Rahul Gandhi mentioned that the Congress proposed to approach the EC with its complaints. The EC has agreed to meet the opposition party’s delegation to address the issues raised by them.The Congress lost the Haryana elections, results for which were announced on Tuesday. The party won 37 of the 90 assembly seats, while the BJP won a majority, securing a historic third term in the state with 48 seats.
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