‘Undemocratic rejection of…’: EC reacts to Congress’ ‘Haryana results unacceptable’ remark, agrees to meet delegation

Haryana Results: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday agreed to meet a delegation from Congress after the party refused to 'accept' Haryana assembly election results terming them 'unacceptable'.

In a letter to Mallikarjun Kharge, the ECI said that it has noted the statements made by Congress President and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi regarding the Haryana Assembly election results and that the party wants to approach the ECI with its complaints/grievances.

The EC has agreed to meet the delegation of the grand old party at 6 PM today.

In a letter to the Congress president, Election Commission Principal Secretory NT Bhutia said, "in refer to the widely reported statement made by Shri Jairam Ramesh, MP and Shri Pawan Khera on 8th October, 2024, which seemingly made an assertion, in the context of the recently concluded General Election to the Legislative Assembly of Haryana, to the effect that "election results are unacceptable", the Election Commission has decided to meet the Congress delegation at 6 PM at Sukumar Sen Hall of Nirvachan Sadan.

The commission said the ECI has received a request seeking a meeting time of 12 member INC delegation, which include those who made the statement.

“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 J&K and Haryana,” the EC letter read.

The Election Commission further said assuming that the statement of the party president is the formal party position on the electoral outcome, the commission has agreed to meet the delegation at Nirvachan Sadan.

According to ECI website the BJP won 48 seats in Haryana, while Congress succeeded on 37.