The Congress has effectively managed to build up narratives that have delivered some dividends, irrespective of whether the narrative was based on truth or falsehood. The biggest narrative it built was about the “BJP planning to change the constitution if it got 400 + seats”, as the target set by the party ahead of the 2024 General Elections.
Now Congress has been trying to build up another narrative that the Haryana election results were “rigged”.
Although the party has not been saying it clearly, the type of allegations it has been levelling and refusing to accept the electoral verdict, indicates that the party is preparing another narrative to discredit the process of elections itself.
The party knows that the particular narrative it builds up is aimed at only its supporters. They will simply believe in and buy the party narrative. The party has not been able to accept the defeat in Haryana.
The party had assumed that 10 years of anti-incumbency would guarantee the government. So much so, that its leaders started squabbling over the Chief Minister’s position, much before the day of the elections.
Even the exit polls had put Congress ahead of the BJP with a clear majority. But when the actual results came, the party was shocked and the BJP won. The Congress had expected that a “likely” win in Haryana would further boost its confidence after “an impressive” performance in the 2024 General Elections.
Everyone in the Congress, starting from Rahul Gandhi onwards believes that the Congress actually “won” the 2024 General Elections and
“defeated” the BJP and Prime Minister Modi, who fell short of an absolute majority of his won by 32 seats, but still got it with the support of the alliance.
With such a “special theory of victory”, the Congress expected that a win in Haryana would further help it to “consolidate” its position and challenge Modi. As that did not happen, the Congress struggled for answers. Somebody suggested raking up the issue of “Electronic Voting Machine” manipulations, a standard excuse of almost every candidate who loses the elections.
Maintaining its tempo to build up the narrative of “rigged results” in Haryana, a delegation of senior Congress leaders today met the Election Commission of India and listed various complaints about anomalies in the counting of votes in Haryana.
The delegation comprised party general secretary organisation KC Venugopal, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Ashok Gehlot, Ajay Maken, Jairam Ramesh, Udai Bhan, Partap Bajwa, Pawan Khera and others.
Briefing reporters, Khera said the Election Commission was told about the complaints from twenty constituencies. In about seven constituencies, the Election Commission handed over written complaints, while in the remaining constituencies, the written complaints will be submitted in another two days.
Khera said, the party delegation strongly asserted that all these machines which are under question, must be sealed properly till the completion of the inquiry.
Speaking on the occasion, Bhupinder Singh Hooda maintained that the election results in Haryana were totally unexpected and surprising. He said the Election Commission had assured the delegation to look into the complaints.
Haryana Congress president referred to the 99 per cent battery charge of the Electronic Voting Machines even after hours of use. He said, counting in all these EVMs showed the BJP winning while those machines with less battery charge after hours of use showed the BJP winning.
The Congress leaders said that they have been assured by the Election Commission that it will look into the matter and reply to the party on all the issues after taking the feedback from all the concerned Returning Officers.
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