New Delhi [India], October 8 : Union Minister Giriraj Singh on Tuesday, following the BJP's victory in the Haryana elections, responded to Congress's blame on EVM malfunctioning.
He said, "Now is there any other chance for that 'shameless', Congress has always been shameless from the beginning. When they won Telangana, they said it was their victory; when they lost, it was EVM's fault."
"Prime Minister Modi thanked the people and workers of Haryana; we also thanked them," he added.
Earlier in the day, the Congress rejected Haryana assembly results, which showed BJP's victory to form its third successive government in the state, saying the outcome is "totally unexpected, completely surprising, counter-intuitive and against ground-reality" and that "it is not possible" for the party "to accept the results".
Addressing a press conference on the results in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, party leaders Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera said they have received "very serious complaints" on the process of counting and they will move the Election Commission. The Congress finished a distant second in the Assembly polls and is slated to win 37 seats and BJP won 48 seats in the 90-member Haryana assembly.
Jairam Ramesh said "what we have seen today in Haryana is a victory for manipulation, a victory for subverting the will of the people and it is a defeat for transparent democratic processes" "The results in Haryana are totally unexpected, completely surprising and counter-intuitive. It goes against ground reality. It goes against what the people of Haryana had made their minds up for, which was for change and transformation. I think under these circumstances, it is not possible for us to accept the results that have been announced today," he said.
"We have received very serious complaints on the process of counting, the functioning of EVMs in at least three districts. There are more that are coming in. We have spoken to our senior colleagues in Haryana and this information is being collected. We hope to present this in a consolidated form to the Election Commission tomorrow or the day after. We will seek time...Serious questions have been raised by our candidates. We will bring it to the notice of the Election Commission," he added.
Pawan Khera said they are surprised and no one can believe that "such an unexpected result" will come in Haryana. He said the party cannot accept such an outcome. "If it is said in one line, this is the victory of the system and the defeat of democracy. We cannot accept this...We are collecting complaints. Our candidates have given complaints to the returning officers there and are still giving them. In the coming days, we will soon go to the Election Commission with all these complaints and register our complaint there. This kind of result was not visible anywhere on the ground. No one can believe that such an unexpected result will come in Haryana. We are all surprised," Khera said.
Jairam Ramesh also referred to the results in Jammu and Kashmir where the National Conference-Congress alliance won the majority in the assembly.
"The chapter on Haryana is not complete, it will continue. The chapter in Jammu and Kashmir, of course, there will be a coalition government. And as I said till yesterday, various attempts were being made to ensure that the majority will not come to the Congress-NC coalition but the people of Jammu and Kashmir have given a very clear mandate for this coalition government," he said.
Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera said they were not questioning the entire outcome but resulted in seats where there were complaints.
Proving exit polls wrong, BJP won its biggest victory in Haryana polls with the Hindi heartland state seemingly turning into one of its bastions. The Congress, which was seen to be having the advantage of anti-incumbency and was seen to be ahead in the perception battle, fumbled again.
BJP leaders said that it was "pro-incumbency" for their government in Haryana based on the work it had done in the past 10 years. The Congress improved its vote share in Haryana compared to the last assembly elections but so did the BJP. While the BJP got 39.90 per cent votes, Congress got 39.10 per cent. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 48 seats, while the Indian National Congress (INC) secured 36 seats and is leading in 1 more, bringing its total to 37. The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) managed to win 2 seats, and 3 Independent candidates were successful. This brings the total number of seats to 90.