'May seek legal action if party is attacked': Congress on EC response over Haryana polls

In a strongly worded letter, the Congress said its communications to the Election Commission are restricted to the issues and "if the current ECI's goal is to strip itself of the last vestiges of neutrality, then it is doing a remarkable job at creating that impression."

"Second, the recent tone of the Commission's communications to the INC is a matter that we refuse to take lightly anymore. Every reply from the ECI now seems to be laced with ad-hominem attacks on either individual leaders or the party itself. The INC's communications confine themselves to issues and are written with a regard for the high office of the CEC and his brother Commissioners," the letter, signed by nine senior leaders including KC Venugopal, Ashok Gehlot and Ajay Maken, stated.

"However, the ECI's reply are written in a tone that is condescending. Judges who write decisions do not attack or demonise the party raising the issues. However, if the ECI persists then we shall have no choice but to seek legal recourse to expunge such remarks (a remedy with which the ECI is familiar since it unsuccessfully sought to do the same with a High Court's unflattering but accurate observations after Covid)," it added.

This comes after the Election Commission Tuesday slammed the Congress for making "baseless allegations... when faced with inconvenient electoral outcomes" and claimed that the Haryana polling process was flawless.

The sharp rebuke was issued after the Congress' repeated claims pointing to irregularities during the Haryana election in which it lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party, despite having a big early lead.

In a statement, the poll body rejected the Congress' claims of "an unexplained slowdown in updating of (Haryana election) results" on its website on counting day - October 8 - for two hours.

The EC warned the Congress, and other political parties, against making "unfounded and sensational complaints" during an election, especially during casting and counting of votes.

"Irresponsible allegations can lead to public unrest, turbulence, and chaos," the EC had said.

It also asked Congress to take "firm and concrete steps and curb (this) tendency of frivolous complaints".

"Each step in the electoral process in Haryana was flawless and executed under the watch of Congress candidates or agents," the EC had said in its formal response.

The 1600-page document contained point-by-point rebukes to each of the Congress' complaints, including a demand for clarification on the battery status of the counting unit (CU) of the electronic voting machines (EVM) to the "deliberate slowdown in the speed of counting and uploading of data" on the EC website.

On concerns about the battery, the EC said the display of voltage and capacity is "irrelevant to the EVM' s vote-counting functionality and integrity". "Battery status displayed on CU serves only to assist technical teams in monitoring power levels... to ensure smooth operation during polling," the EC said.