Jagan’s big charge: ‘Haryana result confounds popular perception, no different from Andhra’

Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday joined the Congress in questioning Haryana’s election results, which he said confounded popular perception. He said the Haryana election result was no different from Andhra Pradesh. “Yet another election result confounds popular perception. Haryana election result is no different from Andhra Pradesh, on which cases are pending in courts,” he said in a detailed tweet.

The Congress suffered a humiliating defeat in Haryana, where every pollster predicted a crushing defeat for the BJP. The YSRCP also suffered a similar defeat in Andhra earlier this year, when it was decimated by the TDP-led NDA. The YSRCP, which had won 151 seats in 2014, was reduced to just 11 seats.

Reddy today suggested that democracy was under threat and the only way to protect it was “going back to Paper Ballot”. “In a democracy like ours, democracy should not only be prevalent but also be seen to be thriving. Only way to ensure both, is going back to paper ballot,” he said.

“When a large majority of developed countries including USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, France, Japan, Norway, and Denmark are using paper ballot, it is time we make changes with rest of the world and move “Towards Paper Ballot, which in turn would enhance the confidence of the electorate. The legislature should come forward to instil confidence,” the former chief minister said.

Earlier this evening, a Congress delegation met the officials of the Election Commission and told them about the complaints the party received from several seats. “We told ECI about the 20 complaints of which 7 are in written complaints from 7 constituencies. There were machines which were at 99% and other normal machines were at 60-70% on the day of counting. We demanded that those machines should be sealed and secured until the investigation is complete. We also told ECI that in the next 48 hours, we will also present the remaining complaints to them,” Congress’ Pawan Khera said while speaking to reporters.

Khera said the Congress delegation presented the documents of 7 Assembly constituencies. “Complaints from 13 more Assembly constituencies will be submitted to ECI. There were issues regarding the batteries of the machines by our candidates. We have asked for a reply from ECI after conducting the investigation,” he said.

Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda, who headed the entire campaign in the state, said the results of Haryana were surprising because everyone thought that the Congress would form the government. “Be it IB, experts, survey reports, but what happened was that when the counting of postal ballots started, Congress was leading everywhere, but when the counting of EVMs started, Congress was lagging behind. We have received many complaints. The counting of votes was delayed in several places,” Hooda said.