The Congress Legislature Party, led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, submitted a memorandum to Haryana Governor Asim Ghosh on Thursday. The party raised serious concerns, alleging that the Rajya Sabha poll was compromised by violations of rules and a complete disregard for ethical conduct, democratic values, and political morality by the ruling BJP.
The MLAs also questioned the role of the Returning Officer, IAS officer Pankaj Aggarwal. They alleged that his conduct was partisan, highly unfair and deeply objectionable.
Under normal circumstances, both BJP and Congress candidates were expected to win comfortably. However, despite not having enough numbers for a second seat, the BJP surprised everyone by fielding its vice president Satish Nandal as an Independent candidate. His nomination was backed by seven BJP MLAs.
“This unscrupulous act of the ruling party trampled the dignity of the August House of Haryana Legislative Assembly by transforming it into a political market,” the memorandum said. It alleged that the government acted like political predators and used immoral methods to ensure the victory of its Independent candidate.
“They openly and unabashedly indulged in horse trading, faustian bargains, allurements, intimidations, institutional pressures, dishonest deals and misuse of government machinery. All this was a foulest broad-day light murder of democracy in the state with the whole country watching,” the memorandum further added.
Referring to the role of the Returning Officer, the memorandum stated: “More shameful and painful was the notorious shrewdness and arbitrariness in the conduct of the Returning Officer, which supplemented the nefarious manipulations and machinations of the ruling party. IAS officer Pankaj Aggarwal, behaved as an agent of the BJP/Independent candidate in a manner unbecoming of a Constitutional authority.”
“He deliberately and illegally rejected the Congress MLAs' votes, accepted and allowed the invalid votes in favour of BJP and the Independent candidates. He even attempted to tamper the counting process and procedure to influence the election outcome in favour of the Independent candidate,” the memorandum alleged.
It further added that he ignored and dismissed all valid objections raised by Congress polling agents. “The Congress party has also approached the Election Commission of India with complaints about his conduct,” the memorandum said.
Also read: BJP has no faith in democracy or public mandate: Hooda
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