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Congress on EC's response on Haryana polls complaint: ‘Gave clean chit to itself’
The Congress also claimed that the tone of the poll body in its reply was also "condescending".
The Congress party on Friday responded to the Election Commission over its response to the party's complaints regarding the Haryana assembly elections.
The party said that it is “not surprised” that the poll body has examined its complaints and “given a clean chit to itself”. It also pointed out that the tone of the poll body in its reply was also "condescending".
Earlier this week, the Election Commission had rejected the Congress's allegations of irregularities in the Haryana assembly elections, calling them “baseless, misplaced and devoid of facts”.
The poll panel has also warned the grand old party, asking it to refrain from “baseless allegations” election after election.
On Friday, the Congress said that while their complaints about the Haryana elections were specific, the response by the Election Commission was “generic” and “focused on diminishing the complainant and the petitioners”.
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"We have carefully studied your response to our complaints. Not surprisingly, the ECI has given a clean chit to itself. We would normally have let it be at that. However, the tone and tenor of the ECI's response, the language used, and the allegations made against the INC compel us to submit the counter-response," a letter signed by Congress' Jairam Ramesh, K C Venugopal, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupinder Hooda, Ajay Maken, Abhishek Singhvi, Uday Bhan, Partap Bajwa and Pawan Khera said.
"We do not know who is advising or guiding the hon'ble Commission, but it seems that the Commission has forgotten that it is a body set up under the Constitution and charged with the discharge of certain crucial functions - both administrative and quasijudicial," the response added.
‘ Election Commission's tone is condescending': Congress
In its reply to the poll body, the Congress alleged that the EC's reply was written in a condescending tone and warned that if the poll panel persists with such language, it will have no choice but to seek legal recourse to expunge such remarks.
The party pointed out that its communications to the Election Commission confine themselves to issues and are written with regard to the high office of the Chief Election Commissioner of India and his other commissioners.
Also Read | Congress calls Haryana poll results ‘unacceptable, counter-intuitive’
"The ECI's reply are written in a tone that is condescending. 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," the party said in the letter.
"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)," the letter added.
