The blame game among political parties continued over Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana after the Election Commission showed videography of election process to complainants and representatives of winning candidates on Thursday.
The Election Commission had asked all the three candidates who contested the Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana to appear before it and also those who had filed a complaint with the EC alleging the pen provided for marking the votes was replaced leading to the cancellation of 14 votes.
While Congress, INlD supported independent candidate RK Anand and Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar appeared before the EC, Cabinet Minister OP Dhankar appeared on behalf of Cabinet Minister Birender Singh and media baron Subhash Chandra had also sent a representative on his behalf.
Earlier this week, Congress, INlD and candidate RK Anand had moved EC, alleging someone had changed the original pen provided by the election officials with another one for a while which resulted in some votes being declared as invalid during Rajya Sabha poll held on June 11 for the two seats from Haryana.
lawyer RK Anand, who lost the Rajys Sabha polls on Thursday alleged that BJP MlA Assem Goyal and independent MlA Jai Prakash hatched the entire conspiracy of changing the pen during the polling.
While talking to the mediapersons after watching the polling recording, Anand alleged that it is evident from the videography of polling process that BJP MlA Assem Goyal took more than 55 seconds to cast his vote. He changed the pen while casting his vote as 13 votes polled after him were cancelled due to change of pen. Then independent MlA Jai Prakash again switched the pen and placed the pen provided by the Election Commission, alleged he.
Raising questions on the Election Commission, Anand said that a sketch pen used for drawing by children was used during voting. This sketch pen is easily available in the market and was changed during the polling process, said he.
I have submitted more objections to the Election Commission after watching the videography of the polling process, said he.
Anand added that I will move court to demand an inquiry into the issue and would also file an FIR after receiving the recording of polling process from EC as this is a case of cheating and conspiracy.
Anand went onto say that he is sure that Congress MlAs voted for him during the election and their votes were cancelled due to a deep rooted conspiracy hatched by the ruling BJP Government.
On the other hand, Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar also accused the Manoharlal Khattar government of hatching a conspiracy that had led to the invalidation of 14 of the 17 votes of Congress MlAs, which helped BJP-backed independent Subash Chandra win in the election.
The BJP MlAs were very relaxed during the voting and they knew this all would happen… A conspiracy was hatched by the State Government and officials present there during the polling to ensure the victory of BJP backed candidates in the Rajya Sabha polls, alleged Tanwar.
However, Cabinet Minister OP Dhankar claimed that no MlA took more than a minute time during voting. There is nothing suspicious in the video recording of entire polling process, claimed Dhankar.
He added that following this ink controversy, the Election Commission should reconsider the polling process and EVMs can be used from next time.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has asked the complainants to appear before it on next Wednesday
Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Singh Dahiya said that videography of election process was shown to the complainants and representatives of winning candidates in Haryana Vidhan Sabha today.
More objections were received from the complainants on the election process. The complainants have been asked to appear on next Wednesday now, he added.
During the election, Union Minister and BJP leader Birender Singh had comfortably won a Rajya Sabha seat from Haryana. However, following rejection as invalid of 14 votes polled for two seats, independent candidate lawyer RK Anand, backed by INlD and Congress, lost the poll to Subhash Chandra, an independent who was supported by the ruling BJP.
A team of the Election Commission had on Tuesday visited the Assembly secretariat for an inquiry into the matter. Haryana Vidhan Sabha Secretary RK Nandal, who was the returning officer for the polls, had on Tuesday said there was very rare chance of the pen provided for marking the votes being changed.