New Delhi:

Responding strongly to the Election Commission’s reply to its complaints about “irregularities” in the Haryana Assembly elections, the Congress has accused the poll body of attacking the party and its leaders and threatened to take legal action for expunging such remarks if it continues to do so. 

In a strongly worded letter on Friday, the Congress said its communications to the Election Commission of India (ECI) are restricted to the issues and respect the office of the Chief Election Commissioner and the election commissioners but the poll body’s replies are written in a condescending tone. “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 Congress wrote.

Replying to the Congress’ complaint on Tuesday, the Election Commission had criticised the party for making “baseless allegations when faced with inconvenient electoral outcomes” and cautioned it against making “unfounded and sensational complaints”. The poll body had also termed the allegations “irresponsible” and asked the party to take steps to curb a “tendency of frivolous complaints” while insisting that the electoral process in Haryana was flawless. 

The Congress, in its response, said it was not surprised that the Election Commission had given a clean chit to itself but said the “tone and tenor of the ECI’s response, the language used, and the allegations” made against the party compelled it to reply. 

The party said the Election Commission had raised the “exceptional” nature of engaging with it on the issues raised and said it seemed the poll body had forgotten that it was its duty to do so. 

‘Laced With Attacks’

“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. 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. 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.

The last comment was a reference to the Madras High Court castigating the Election Commission in 2021 and observing that the poll body allowing political parties to take out rallies and organise meetings had led to a surge in Covid cases. 

The Congress claimed that the Election Commission has almost always fought any move for transparency and that while its complaints on the Haryana poll process were specific, the poll body’s comments were “generic and focused on diminishing the complaints and the petitioners”.

‘Totally Unexpected’

When the counting for the Haryana elections was held on October 8, the BJP surged ahead after early leads for the Congress and ended up winning a record third straight term with 48 of the state’s 90 seats while the Congress got 37. The Congress had complained of an “unexplained slowdown” in updating results, which the Election Commission had dismissed.

Later that day, the Congress said it could not accept the verdict of the elections saying they were “totally unexpected, completely surprising and counter-intuitive”.

“What we have seen today in Haryana is a victory for manipulation, a victory for subverting the will of the people and it is a defeat for transparent, democratic processes. The chapter on Haryana is not complete,” senior leader Jairam Ramesh, who is also one of the signatories of Friday’s letter, had said.

New Delhi:

Still reeling from its shock defeat in Haryana, the Congress held a high-level review meeting on Thursday to assess the possible reasons for the loss with a focus on learning lessons, given the impending elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. Sources said infighting, the impact of not allying with the AAP and complaints of “discrepancies” in electronic voting machines (EVMs) were all discussed. 

The meeting was attended by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal and senior observers for the polls Ashok Gehlot and Ajay Maken, among others. The Congress’ Haryana in-charge Deepak Babaria joined the meeting via video link.

“All of us discussed the Assembly elections in detail. There was a lot of difference between exit polls and actual results. Not just us, even you will agree that the results were unexpected and nobody thought they would turn out this way. This, and the possible reasons for it, were also discussed,” Mr Maken said after the meeting.

To a question on infighting within the Congress and whether that could have been a reason for the party failing to dislodge the BJP in Haryana, Mr Maken said, “There are various reasons, from the Election Commission to internal differences, we have discussed all that. Such a big upset…we cannot discuss everything in an hour and a half,” he added.

The Congress has also set up a technical team to look into the EVM discrepancies.

‘Plain Speaking’

Party sources told NDTV there was plain speaking on the part of Mr Kharge, Mr Gandhi and others who attended the meeting. Some of the key talking points were the role of Independents, the impact of the AAP – with which alliance talks fell through at the last moment – and other coalitions, as well as the infighting within the Congress.

Ahead of the elections, there were signs of factionalism between the camps of former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who reportedly got a say in picking most of the candidates, and senior leader Kumari Selja, whose absence from a chunk of the campaign raised eyebrows. There was also talk of Ms Selja jumping ship and joining the BJP.

The factionalism is seen as having played a key role in the Congress remaining restricted to 37 seats in the 90-member Assembly despite the contest proving to be largely bipolar. The BJP, which had been in power in Haryana for 10 years, won a record third term and put in its best-ever performance in the state despite battling anti-incumbency and perceived anger from certain sections, including farmers, sportspersons and armed forces aspirants. It won 48 seats, crossing the majority mark on its own. 

Looking Ahead

Sources said the party realises that the upcoming elections in Jharkhand and, especially,  Maharashtra are critical. This, they said, was reflected in Mr Kharge and Mr Gandhi meeting Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren to discuss election strategy. The Congress is in an alliance with Mr Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha at the state as well as national levels as part of the INDIA grouping. 

Some of the important lessons from the Haryana defeat, according to sources, were that the party cannot afford to be overconfident and that secular forces have to remain united. They added that given its much-improved showing in the Lok Sabha elections, the party is confident that it can learn the right lessons and approach the Maharashtra and Jharkhand polls with the right strategy and mindset.

EVM Issue

After the election results were declared on Tuesday, the Congress had said that the outcome in Haryana was a victory for “manipulation and subverting the will of the people” and the party cannot accept it. 

“We have received very serious complaints about the process of counting and the functioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in at least three districts in Haryana… There are serious questions on the integrity of the instruments of this system, namely EVMs, and the extraordinary pressure that has been brought to bear on local administration officials,” senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had said.

A delegation of senior Congress leaders, including Mr Venugopal, Mr Ramesh, Mr Hooda and Ashok Gehlot met Election Commission officials on Wednesday and handed over a memorandum with specific complaints received from Haryana. 

New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday took a jibe at Congress over its complaint and subsequent letter to the Election Commission regarding “slowdown in updating results” of assembly polls in Haryana and alleged that the opposition party wants to tarnish every institution.

Addressing party workers in Delhi after BJP victory in Haryana polls, PM Modi alleged that Congress has tried to mislead the people of the country.

“Whether it is the Election Commission of the country, the police, the judiciary, the Congress wants to tarnish every institution. You will remember the kind of ruckus they created before the results of the Lok Sabha elections. During the elections too, these people and their urban Naxalite allies had gone to the Supreme Court to tarnish the image of the Election Commission. Today also they have done the same. Congress has tried to mislead the people of the country.

Congress always tries to question the impartiality of our institutions, tries to tarnish their reputation. This has been the habit of Congress. Congress has been doing such things shamelessly,” he said.

He also took “parjeevi” jibe at Congress over results in Jammu and Kashmir. The National Conference-Congress alliance won majority in the assembly polls with the former accounting for over three-fourth seats won by the alliance.

“In J-K, its (Congress) allies were already worried that they were suffering losses because of Congress and today’s results have shown the same. You must remember that we saw the same thing in the election results as well. In Lok Sabha, half of the seats won by Congress were because of their allies. Apart from this, where the allies trusted Congress, the boat of those allies sank. In many states, the allies of Congress had to bear the brunt of Congress’s poor performance,” he said.

“Congress is such a parasite party that swallows its allies. Congress wants to make such a country where people hate their own heritage, doubt their national institutions, wants to tarnish the image of everything that the countrymen are proud of. Whether it is the country’s Election Commission, the country’s police, the country’s judiciary, Congress wants to tarnish every institution,” he added.
The Election Commission on Tuesday termed as “ill-founded” Congress allegation of slowdown in updating results of assembly polls in Haryana and said it rejects the attempt “to surreptitiously give credence to irresponsible, unfounded and uncorroborated malafide narratives”.

The Election Commission responded to a memorandum by Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh in which the party complained about “unexplained slowdown” in updating of results of Haryana assembly polls on its website.

The BJP is set to form its third successive government in Haryana as it won 48 seats in the 90-member assembly as per the results announced on Tuesday. The Congress won 37 seats.

In its reply to Jairam Ramesh’s letter, the poll panel said that a somewhat similar concern was raised by Congress in regard to the Lok Sabha elections on June 4 which was “ill-founded and dismissed by the Commission”.

The poll panel said it had categorically responded that counting of votes is being carried out as per Rule 60 of Conduct of Election Rules at the designated counting centres and by the designated authorities following the Statutory and Regulatory regime.

“With reference to your today’s Memorandum regarding slowdown in updating of the results of Haryana on the ECI Website, it is reiterated that the entire counting process in Haryana and J-K is unfolding in the presence of candidates, observers and micro-observers as per the Statutory scheme,” the poll panel said in its reply.

“There is nothing on record to substantiate your ill-founded allegation of slowdown in updating of results. Your Memorandum also does not bring out any contrary facts as to the delay at any of the constituencies in Haryana or J-K. As can be gleaned from the publicly available data on the results website of the ECI, speed of the round-wise updation by Returning Officers would allay all your fears,” it added.

The poll panel also shared a table about updating trends from different constituencies and said approximately 25 rounds across all the constituencies are being updated every five minutes, “which testifies dissemination of counting process in a speedy manner”.

“In view of the above, the Commission unequivocally rejects your attempt to surreptitiously give credence to irresponsible, unfounded and uncorroborated malafide narratives,” the reply said.

Earlier in the day, the trends showed that BJP was ahead by a margin of 15 seats in Haryana and Congress leaders insisted that the party will see a surge in the last rounds of counting. They alleged that the Election Commission was not updating its website on real-time basis.

Jairam Ramesh had asked if the BJP governments were trying to build pressure on the local administration in Haryana districts.”We are filing a memorandum, we are lodging a complaint. We hope that the EC will answer our questions. The results of 10-11 rounds are already out but only four to five rounds have been updated on EC website. This is a tactic to pressure the Administration,” Jairam Ramesh told ANI.

“There is no need to be disheartened. The game is not over. Mind games are being played. We will not deter, there is no need to be disheartened. We are going to get the mandate. Congress is going to form the government,” he added.

He also complained of “unexplained slowdown” in a post on X.”Like the Lok Sabha elections, in Haryana we are again witnessing a slowing down of uploading up-to- date trends on the ECI website. Is the BJP trying to build pressure on administration by sharing outdated and misleading trends.”

In his letter Jairam Ramesh sought immediate directions to officials to update the website with “true and accurate figures”.

“Over the last two hours between 9-11 am, there has been an unexplained slowdown in updating of results on the ECI’s website. As you can imagine this allows bad faith actors to spin narratives that undermine the process. You can see examples of it already playing out on social media. Our fear is also that such narratives can then be used by these mala fide actors to influence processes where counting is still underway i.e. in most of the counting centres,” he said in the letter.”We request you to issue immediate directions to your officials to update the website with true and accurate figures so that false news and malicious narratives can be countered immediately,” the letter added.

Following EC’s reply to his letter, Jairam Ramesh shot off another letter, saying the poll panel’s “reply was completely hostile in nature” and “inappropriate words” had been used. Mr Ramesh said Congress is “appalled at the defensive tone and tenor taken in the letter”.

“Not only is the reply completely hostile in nature, it degrades the conversational level to an unacceptable low, which itself is surprising for a body supposed to be neutral and impartial and it misrepresents crucial facts in a vein similar to that done by the ruling party,” the letter said. Mr Ramesh said ECI acts as if Congress is “spreading a malicious narrative”.

“First, it is an undeniable fact, and one that can be established with the ECI’s own data, that at the time of the representation for several seats the pages were displaying rounds at 3/4. This was an observation made independently by numerous individuals both on television and on social media. Yet the ECI acts as if it is the INC spreading a malicious narrative,” he said.

“Second, we have documented all our complaints to the ECI, and have catalogued the ECI’s action on them. When we make complaints, we do so on the basis of credible information received or data. We annex several documents to support our claims and in the hearings granted present those for scrutiny. The ECI’s own published data attests that they have acted on the bulk of our complaints thereby implying that we were not unreasonable or unfair in our prayers to the ECI,” he added.

Addressing a press conference at the party office later, Jairam Ramesh and Congress leader Pawan Khera rejected assembly results in Haryana, saying the outcome is “totally unexpected, completely surprising, counter-intuitive and against ground-reality and that “it is not possible for the party “to accept the results”.

They said the Congress central leadership has received “very serious complaints” on the process of counting and they will move the Election Commission.

Jairam Ramesh said “what we have seen today in Haryana is a victory for manipulation, a victory for subverting the will of the people and it is a defeat for transparent democratic processes””The results in Haryana are totally unexpected, completely surprising and counter-intuitive. It goes against ground reality. It goes against what the people of Haryana had made their minds up for, which was for change and transformation. I think under these circumstances, it is not possible for us to accept the results that have been announced today,” he said. .

“We have received very serious complaints on the process of counting, the functioning of EVMs in at least three districts. There are more that are coming in. We have spoken to our senior colleagues in Haryana and this information is being collected. We hope to present this in a consolidated form to the Election Commission tomorrow or the day after. We will seek time…Serious questions have been raised by our candidates. We will bring it to the notice of the Election Commission,” he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The Aam Aadmi Party’s project to expand into Haryana, the home state of party chief Arvind Kejriwal, appears to have failed to take off once again with leads suggesting that it is on course to draw a blank.

If the trends hold, it will be a huge setback for the AAP, especially since it comes months ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections and because it has sparked discussions on whether the party made a strategic mistake by deciding not to ally with the Congress. 

While local leaders of the Congress were not in favour of an alliance with the AAP, senior leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi was learnt to have pushed for it, arguing that it would prevent a division of votes and give the opposition its best chance of defeating the BJP.

The senior leadership of the AAP was also learnt to have been keen on a tie-up but reports had said talks had hit a roadblock because the party wanted to contest at least 10 of Haryana’s 90 Assembly seats while the Congress was in no mood to concede more than seven.

The collapse of alliance discussions was expected to hurt the Congress in seven seats – Kalayat, Rania, Pehwa, Barwala, Jind, Bhiwani and Gurugram – but only the results will show how much of an impact the AAP managed to have. 

One of the key pitches by the party had been that it has popular governments in Delhi and Punjab, both of which are Haryana’s neighbours. Borrowing one of the BJP’s favourite phrases and one-upping it, AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha had said that this would enable the party to bring a “triple engine” of development in the state. 

Bad Timing?

The Haryana results have come at a time when Arvind Kejriwal has given up the Delhi chief minister’s chair and, banking on his popularity, said that he will take up the post only if the AAP forms a government after the Assembly elections next year. 

The AAP chief had been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate and then by the CBI for his alleged involvement in the Delhi liquor policy ‘scam’. Two days after being granted bail by the Supreme Court last month, he had sprung a surprise by announcing his resignation and saying that while he has got justice from legal courts, he would now seek justice from the “people’s court”. 

“I will sit on the Chief Minister’s chair only after the order of the people… I want to ask the people of Delhi, is Kejriwal innocent or guilty? If I have worked, vote for me,” he had said. 

While the Haryana elections may not have a direct bearing on Delhi, if the party fails to win even one seat after contesting nearly all of them, it is expected to dent the morale of workers. The AAP had also lost the lone seat of Kurukshetra that it had contested from Haryana in the Lok Sabha polls as well as all four constituencies it had fought in Delhi.

New Delhi:

After pointing to a comfortable victory for the Congress, leads for Haryana are now showing that the BJP is winning more seats in the state. As of 10.12 am, the BJP is ahead in 48 of the state’s 90 Assembly constituencies while the Congress is leading in 35. 

An aggregate of seven exit polls predicted that the Congress will win 55 seats, 10 more than the halfway mark of 45, while the BJP will emerge victorious in 26. 

While celebrations began outside the Congress headquarters in New Delhi even before the counting started, with party supporters dancing as dhols were being played, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini expressed confidence that the BJP will form the government in Haryana for the third straight time. 

“We have done a lot of development work in the past 10 years. The kind of system set up by former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will continue to bring benefits for Haryana for a long time. It is our responsibility to take this good work forward,” Mr Saini, who took over as the chief minister from Mr Khattar in March, told reporters this morning. 

After leads pointed to the BJP forming a government in the state again, Congress supporters toned down the celebrations but said they were still confident that the party would win.

In the last Assembly elections in Haryana in 2019, the BJP had won 40 seats, the Congress 31 and the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) 10. The BJP formed the government with the support of the JJP and Dushyant Chautala became the deputy chief minister. The post-poll alliance ended when Mr Saini became the chief minister. 

The BJP won only five of the state’s 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana after sweeping all of them in 2019 and the Assembly elections in the state as well as Jammu and Kashmir are an opportunity for the party to prove that it remains popular with voters after failing – for the first time in 10 years – to achieve a majority on its own in the general elections.

For the Congress, the stakes are arguably even higher because the party had been nearly written off after its massive defeats in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Congress leaders have been citing the party’s haul of 99 seats in this year’s general elections and the performance of the INDIA alliance to talk of a resurgence, and the results in both Haryana and J&K are being seen as a test of that theory.

Chandigarh:

Political parties and leaders wait with bated breath as the counting day approaches in Haryana, with the ruling BJP confident of retaining power for a third term, and the Congress, which is out of power for 10 years, more than hopeful of making a comeback when results are announced on Tuesday.

Officials said all preparations, including security arrangements, have been completed for the counting process which begins at 8 am on October 8.

“A three-tier security arrangements have been made at counting venues,” Haryana’s Chief Electoral Officer Pankaj Agarwal told PTI on Monday.

The elections in Haryana are the first major direct contest between the BJP and the Congress following the Lok Sabha polls, and the result here would be used by the winner to build a narrative in their favour in other states where polls due over the next few months.

The key parties in the fray are the BJP, the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, INLD-BSP and JJP-Azad Samaj Party. However, most seats are likely to see a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress.

Jammu and Kashmir also voted alongside Haryana, but most seats there have witnessed multi-corner contests rather than a direct Congress-BJP fight.

Elections are due in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi in a few months.

A total of 1,031 candidates, including 464 Independents and 101 women, are in the fray on Haryana’s 90 constituencies which voted in single phase on October 5.

Several exit polls have predicted a Congress victory in Haryana which recorded a voter turnout of 67.90 per cent.

Rejecting the exit poll results, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has claimed his party BJP will form the government for a third time with full majority on October 8.

He said when results are announced on October 8 the Congress will blame Electronic Voting Machines.

On the other hand, Congress leader and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a frontrunner for the chief minister’s post if his party wins, exuded confidence of a comfortable majority.

On BJP leaders claiming that their party will return to power, Mr Hooda had earlier stated, “What else will BJP say? They will come to know once results are out.” The INLD-BSP alliance has also claimed that it will form the next government once results are declared, while JJP leader Dushyant Chautala has exuded confidence that his alliance will get good numbers.

Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, whose party contested Haryana polls on its own, has been claiming that no government in Haryana can be formed without the support of his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

The ruling BJP has been saying that its return to office will be powered by its record on good governance, transparent administration, equitable development, jobs on merit, welfare initiatives for all sections including farmers, poor and the weak.

However, Congress and other opposition parties have dubbed the BJP government a failure, and targeted it on issues related to farmers, unemployment, Agniveer, inflation, law and order, and others.

Prominent among those in the fray are Chief Minister Saini (Ladwa), Leader of Opposition Hooda (Garhi Sampla-Kiloi), INLD’s Abhay Chautala (Ellenabad), JJP’s Dushyant Chautala (Uchana Kalan), BJP’s Anil Vij (Ambala Cantt), Capt Abhimanyu (Narnaund), O P Dhankar (Badli), AAP’s Anurag Dhanda (Kalayat) and Congress’ Vinesh Phogat (Julana).

From Tosham seat, former MP Shruti Choudhry of BJP and Anirudh Chaudhary, both cousins, are contesting.

From Dabwali, Devi Lal’s grandson Aditya Devi Lal, an INLD candidate, is taking on JJP’s Digvijay Singh Chautala, great grandson of the former deputy prime minister.

The BJP has fielded former chief minister late Bhajan Lal’s grandson Bhavya Bishnoi from the Adampur segment of Hisar while its nominee from Ateli in Mahendragarh is Arti Rao, whose father Rao Inderjit Singh is a Union minister.

Among the Independents are Savitri Jindal (Hisar), Ranjit Chautala (Rania) and Chitra Sarwara (Ambala Cantt).

Taking on Dushyant from Uchana is Congress’ Brijendra Singh, son of former Union minister Birender Singh.

A few rebels from both Congress and BJP have also entered the fray.

In the outgoing Assembly, the strength of ruling BJP is 41 (including the Adampur seat won in 2022 bypoll), the Congress has 28 MLAs, the JJP (6), while Haryana Lokhit Party and Indian National Lok Dal have one member each.

There are four Independents, while nine seats are vacant.

Seven of the nine seats fell vacant as their representatives resigned after switching sides, while the Badshahpur seat fell vacant as Independent MLA Rakesh Daulatabad died in May.

The Mulana seat is lying vacant since Congress’ Varun Chaudhary fought parliamentary polls and got elected from Ambala.

In 2019, the BJP formed the government with the support of JJP while most Independents had also extended support. However, JJP’s post-poll tie-up with the BJP ended after the saffron party replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini as chief minister in March this year. 

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Chandigarh:

Haryana Jan Sevak Party nominee from the Meham assembly constituency Balraj Kundu on Saturday alleged that former Congress MLA Anand Singh Dangi assaulted him and his personal assistant at a polling booth in Rohtak district.

In a video message, Mr Kundu said he was visiting polling booth number 134 in the constituency when it happened.

He alleged that Mr Dangi ripped his clothes and also had him “manhandled”. “My PA was beaten up,” Mr Kundu said.

The outgoing MLA from the Meham assembly seat also claimed that Anand Singh Dangi sensed the impending defeat of his son and Congress candidate Balram Dangi and this has left him “rattled”.

Mr Kundu also urged voters to stay calm and maintain peace.

The Jan Sevak Party candidate is pitted against Balram Dangi and the BJP’s Deepak Hooda from the Meham constituency.

Polling began Saturday morning for all the 90 Assembly seats in Haryana, amid tight security arrangements.

The fate of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, the Congress’ Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and Vinesh Phogat, besides the JJP’s Dushyant Chautala and 1,027 other candidates will be decided in the polls in which over 2 crore people are eligible to vote.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Upping the ante against the Congress less than two hours before campaigning ended for the Haryana Assembly elections, which will be held in two days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the party stands for corruption, casteism, communalism and nepotism.

In a series of tweets on X on Thursday, Prime Minister Modi said that he has travelled across Haryana in the last few days and the people’s enthusiasm has given him confidence that they will elect the BJP for a third straight term and not accept the “divisive and negative” politics of the Congress.

Arguing that the BJP, which has been in power in the state since 2014, has worked towards making the lives of the people of Haryana prosperous and focused on the welfare of all sections, the PM pointed to the “failure” of Congress governments in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka. 

“The people of Haryana know that the Congress means a guarantee of corruption, casteism, communalism and nepotism. The basic objective of the politics of father and son (‘bapu-bete ki rajneeti’) is only selfishness… Today, people are also seeing the failure of Congress governments from Himachal to Karnataka. The policies of the Congress destroy people and that is why the people of Haryana do not want the party at all,” he wrote in Hindi.

Taking aim at the alleged infighting within the Congress, the PM said this is happening at a time when it is in the opposition in the state and proves that the party can never give Haryana a stable government. 

He also took a dig at Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi – without naming him – and said that Congress leaders have spoken about ending reservation. The jibe was seen as a reference to Mr Gandhi’s comments during a trip to the US last month, when he had said that the Congress would “think of ending reservation when India is a fair place”. The Congress leader later said the remarks were misunderstood and insisted that his party would take the quota limit beyond 50%.

Claiming that the Congress can never make India strong, PM Modi added, “Today the eyes of the whole world are on India. The world is looking towards India with a lot of hope and expectation. In such a situation it becomes very important that the people of Haryana elect a government that works towards strengthening India. Congress can never make the country strong. Therefore, I request my voters of Haryana to give their blessings to the BJP again.” 

‘Battle Between Hate And Love’

Addressing a rally in the state’s Nuh earlier in the day, Mr Gandhi said the battle in Haryana was between hatred and love.

“Hatred has to be ended. India is not a country of hatred, it is the country of ‘mohabbat’ (love). And you have shown this to the entire country,” said Mr Gandhi.

“The BJP and the RSS are hell-bent on attacking the Constitution… The fight is about this. If the Constitution does not remain, the poor will not have anything,” he added.

Polling will be held in all 90 Assembly constituencies in Haryana on Saturday and counting will take place on October 8.

Chandigarh:

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, convicted in a rape case and serving a 20-year jail term, will get a 20-day parole ahead of the assembly elections in Haryana. Ram Rahim may be released from jail tomorrow morning. This would be his tenth parole in the last two years
Sources said the Haryana government had once again granted him parole after getting approval from the Election Commission.

Ram Rahim was convicted in 2017 for raping two of his women disciples at his ashram in Haryana’s Sirsa.

Earlier today, the Congress, flagging his possible release, had written to the Election Commission, contending that his release would be a violation of the Model Code of Conduct that is in place ahead of the election. Over the years, as a local religious leader, he has garnered mass following. 

There is concern that his release ahead of the election is may act as a catalyst in what the party expects to be close fight. The ruling BJP has been in power for a decade and is hoping to win its third consecutive term. 
 

Banners related to upcoming election can be seen at Ambala district in Haryana.
| Photo Credit: Sabika Syed