Ganesh Kendale
NEW DELHI: BJP National Spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla has criticised Congress for what he describes as a contradictory stance regarding the recent elections in Haryana. After celebrating their initial victory, Congress leaders quickly shifted to questioning the credibility of the Election Commission over alleged discrepancies in voter data.
Poonawalla questioned this shift in a series of comments, saying, “At 8:30 to 9:00am, Pawan Khera was distributing Jalebis; by 11:30am, their spokespersons started criticizing the Election Commission.By noon, Jairam Ramesh began to raise questions on the country’s institutions, and by 2pm, Congress will start questioning the intelligence of the voters,” Poonawalla said.
He added, “Be it J&K or Haryana, Congress has been given the message that pehalwan, jawan, nau jawan, kisan sab karte hain Modi ka samman aur Rahul Gandhi hai nafrat ki dukaan,” referring to a broader sentiment of support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In response, Congress leader Pawan Khera alleged discrepancies in the vote counts being reported by the Election Commission (EC) on television. “There is a mismatch in the actual number of rounds counted and the number of rounds being shown on the television through the Election Commission data,” Khera said.
He accused the EC of lagging in updates, claiming they were displaying results from the fourth or fifth round while eleven rounds had already been counted. Khera further suggested that the delay in data reporting might be an attempt to influence local administration, saying, “In J&K, you are getting live data with every round counted, but in Haryana, it is not so.”
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh echoed these concerns, accusing the EC of attempting to sway the election results. “Like the Lok Sabha elections, in Haryana we are again witnessing a slowdown in uploading up-to-date trends on the ECI website. Is the BJP trying to build pressure on administration by sharing outdated and misleading trends?” Ramesh questioned.
Despite exit polls predicting a Congress victory in the elections, the current trends indicate that the BJP may be on track for a hat-trick win in the Haryana Assembly elections.
