New Delhi: Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge will soon set up a panel to probe the Haryana election debacle in which the grand old party feared tampering with the EVMs on over a dozen Assembly seats. “The Haryana election results are surprising as the outcomes are contrary to the field reports and the public mood on the ground. We have information that EVMs were tampered with at over a dozen seats where we lost. But, we will look into the results in totality and a panel will be announced for the purpose,” AICC secretary in-charge of Haryana Manoj Chauhan told ETV Bharat.
The Congress was hopeful of forming a government in Haryana based on internal reports as well as the various exit polls that showed a similar trend. However, the results on Tuesday were just the opposite and the saffron party registered a third consecutive win in the state.
The Congress was also concerned over its inability to defeat the BJP in the Jammu region of UT Jammu and Kashmir, but will now focus on working out a common minimum program with ally National Conference for the new coalition government.
“It is true that we have not been able to dent the BJP in the Jammu region as we should have. We will certainly examine the results, but we are happy with the INDIA bloc performance in the border UT. The main focus of the alliance government will be the restoration of full statehood for Jammu & Kashmir,” AICC secretary in-charge of Jammu & Kashmir Manoj Yadav told ETV Bharat.
The AICC functionary said the Haryana polls were hijacked. “It is hard to digest the poll outcome. The system was hijacked by the BJP. We have information about tampering with the EVMS and will soon submit a detailed document to the Election Commission. We lost on the seats where the EVMs were 90 per cent charged at the beginning of the counting while we won the seats where the EVMs were charged 60 to 70 per cent. Something is fishy as our candidates had alerted us right at the start of the counting of votes about this discrepancy,” said Chauhan.
According to party insiders, there was a concern within the Congress that the Haryana elections were polarised between the dominant Jat and non-Jat voters, which benefited the saffron party. Besides, the Dalit voters did not come to the grand old party as expected. Furthermore, infighting in the state unit may also have impacted Congress's prospects.
The party insiders acknowledged that ally NC had expressed concern over the need to push the Congress campaign in the Jammu region to counter the BJP in the middle of the polls and the grand old party tweaked its strategy accordingly, but still there some gaps were left behind limiting the Congress to just six out of 32 seats it contested in alliance.
“The BJP had lost vote share in Jammu during the Lok Sabha elections and we expected the trend to continue. But, it seems our campaign needed more aggression. A review will be done and explanations will be sought from those responsible,” a senior AICC functionary said.
Read more: Haryana Election Results: Did Infighting Upset Both Congress Calculations and Exit Poll Predictions
