Amid the controversy over the cancellation of 14 votes during Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana, Election Commission on Monday began inquiry into the issue after receiving complaints from Congress and INlD.
Election Commission team headed by Haryana chief electoral officer Vijay Singh Dahiya visited Vidhan Sabha and met Returning Officer RK Nandal to inquire about the proceedings of Rajya Sabha election, which was held on June 11.
A day before, the Congress had asked the Election Commission to ‘countermand’ the elections and order re-polling. A delegation led by Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar had submitted a memorandum to EC to underline how the elections to the two Rajya Sabha seats from the State were rigged and why it should be held again. On the other hand, the INlD in a letter had urged the EC to institute an inquiry into the “deep-rooted conspiracy” behind the Rajya Sabha election and punish the guilty while challenging the BJP Government in the State to make public the video of the polling process to prove that nothing was amiss. After meeting the EC team, returning officer RK Nandal, who conducted the Rajya Sabha polls, rejected the claims that the pen was changed by an MlA.
Talking to the mediapersons, Nandal said that 14 votes were declared invalid in the Rajya Sabha elections because they used their own pens, not the ones provided by the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat, to cast their votes.
An unauthorised pen was removed before the start of election process and a pen was given by the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat, he said.
When asked if the rejected votes were of Congress MlAs, he said that no one would be able to find out that who had cast those votes with a different ink.
Following rejection as “invalid” of 14 votes polled in the Rajya Sabha elections for two seats in Haryana on Saturday, independent candidate lawyer RK Anand, backed by INlD and Congress, lost the poll to media baron Subhash Chandra, also an independent who was supported by the ruling BJP.
Both Congress and INlD have pointed fingers at each other after 14 votes, which according to BJP and leader of Opposition and INlD’s senior leader Abhay Chautala were of the Congress, were found to be invalid.