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Congress top brass reviews ‘unexpected’ Haryana poll verdict

ByPress Trust of India
Oct 10, 2024 04:29 PM IST

Congress president Kharge, MP Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal, AICC senior observers for the polls Ashok Gehlot and Ajay Maken, as well as AICC secretaries for the state participate in meeting.

The Congress top brass, headed by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, held a review meeting on Thursday on the party’s shock defeat in the Haryana assembly polls and discussed the possible reasons for the “unexpected” results.

Former Haryana CM and party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda addressing the media after a meeting of the Congress delegation with the Election Commission over concerns on the Haryana assembly election results, in New Delhi on Wednesday. (ANI Photo)
Former Haryana CM and party leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda addressing the media after a meeting of the Congress delegation with the Election Commission over concerns on the Haryana assembly election results, in New Delhi on Wednesday. (ANI Photo)

Congress president Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary organisation KC Venugopal, AICC senior observers for the polls Ashok Gehlot and Ajay Maken, as well as AICC secretaries for the state, participated in the review meeting.

AICC in-charge of state Deepak Babaria joined the meeting online.

“We held a review meeting on Haryana election results. As the exit polls and opinion polls had showed, the results were unexpected. There was a lot of difference between exit polls and actual results. We discussed that, what could be the reasons for that. We will take appropriate steps going forward on this,” Maken told reporters after the meeting.

Asked if infighting had hurt the Congress’ chances in the polls, Maken said, “There are various reasons, from the Election Commission to internal differences, we have discussed all that will do so in future as well because such a big upset...we cannot discuss everything in one or one-and-a-half hours.”

The meeting comes a day after the Congress demanded a thorough probe into “discrepancies” found in some Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) during the counting of votes of the Haryana assembly polls and demanded that such EVMs should be sealed and secured pending the inquiry.

A delegation of top Congress leaders, comprising former chief ministers Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Ashok Gehlot and AICC leaders Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken and Pawan Khera, besides Haryana Congress chief Udai Bhan, met top Election Commission officials in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The delegation had handed over a memorandum to the officials along with specific complaints from various constituencies in Haryana. Senior party leader Abhishek Singhvi joined the meeting online.

The Congress leaders alleged that there are at least 20 such 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.

Infighting, over reliance on sitting MLAs and rebel trouble appeared to be some of the contributing factors for the Congress failing to make a comeback in Haryana after a decade.

The party appeared confident of dislodging the BJP dispensation, which was in power for 10 years and facing anti-incumbency.

However, the BJP with 48 seats halted the Congress’s comeback attempt and proved exit polls wrong. They had predicted a comfortable win for the grand old party in Haryana. The Congress managed to muster 37 seats in the 90-member assembly.

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