Haryana results: Congress to set up technical team to look into complaints, discrepancies in EVMs

The Congress on Thursday announced that it has decided to set up a technical team to investigate complaints and alleged discrepancies in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), as party candidates in Haryana alleged.

The decision followed a review meeting called by Congress AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge to deliberate on the "unexpected" results in the Haryana Assembly elections, in which the party managed to muster only 37 seats in the 90-member Assembly.

Congress president Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary of the organisation KC Venugopal, AICC senior observers for the polls Ashok Gehlot and Ajay Maken, and AICC secretaries for the state were present at the review meeting at Kharge's residence.

Earlier on Wednesday, the grand old party demanded a thorough probe into "discrepancies" found in some EVMs during the counting of votes in the Haryana assembly elections and sought that such EVMs be sealed and secured pending the inquiry.

On Wednesday evening, a delegation of top Congress leaders, comprising former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot and AICC leaders Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken, and Pawan Khera met with top officials of the Election Commission at Nirvachan Sadan in national capital Delhi and submit 20 complaints, including issues with EVMs and a delay in counting of votes during the Haryana Assembly Elections 2024.

The Congress leaders alleged that there are at least 20 complaints, including seven in writing from as many assembly constituencies, with many referring to EVMs functioning at 99% battery capacity whereas the average EVMs were found to be operating at 60 to 70% battery capacity during the counting.

After the meeting Congress leader Pawan Khera said, “The Election Commission has assured us that they will look into this matter and they will reply to us after consulting their returning officers from each constituency.”