The Congress on Wednesday urged the Election Commission to seal the Electronic Voting Machines in 20 Assembly constituencies in Haryana until an investigation is completed over alleged irregularities in the counting process.

This came a day after the Bharatiya Janata Party won the Haryana election by clinching 48 seats in the 90-member Assembly. This was an increase from the 40 seats the Hindutva party had won in the 2019 polls. The Congress won 37 seats.

Most exit polls had projected a victory for the Congress in the state.

Hours after the BJP emerged victorious in the state on Tuesday, Congress leaders Pawan Khera and Jairam Ramesh said that the results were unacceptable to it, citing “serious issues” relating to the vote counting process and the functioning of the Electronic Voting Machines in several districts.

Khera alleged that the party had received complaints from Hisar, Mahendragarh and Panipat constituencies, where the BJP won, about the Electronic Voting Machines having 99% battery levels.

The Congress had won where the units had battery levels from 60% to 70%, he claimed.

In response, the Election Commission on Wednesday called the Congress’ statements “unprecedented” and “unheard in the rich democratic heritage” of the country, The Hindu reported.

In a letter to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, the poll panel said that it had allotted a time to meet a delegation from the party assuming that its position was that the Haryana results were “unexpected”, as against a few leaders who said that the results were “not acceptable”.

Later on Wednesday, a delegation of Congress leaders, including Khera, Ramesh, KC Venugopal, Ashok Gehlot, Ajay Maken and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, met officials of the Election Commission in New Delhi and submitted a memorandum on the alleged irregularities.

“We have informed the Election Commission about 20 complaints,” Khera told reporters after the meeting. “Out of these, we have seven complaints in writing.”

Khera said that 99% of the party’s complaints were related to the batteries of the Electronic Voting Machines. He added that the party had demanded that the machines be sealed.

“We will provide some more complaints to the Election Commission in the next 48 hours,” he said, adding that the poll panel assured the party that it would issue a written response to all the complaints.

In the memorandum submitted to the Election Commission, the Congress claimed that a “glaring discrepancy was discovered” by the party’s candidates and their polling agents during the counting of votes in the state, The Hindu reported.

“This discrepancy related to the battery charge/health/capacity of the EVM [Electronic Voting Machines] machines being used during the counting of votes,” it said.

According to the Congress candidates, certain machines used for counting were operating at 99% battery capacity, while others were operating between 60% and 70% battery capacity, the memorandum said.

“In fact, in some cases, this discrepancy was discovered in EVMs used in the same polling station,” it added. “Immediately upon discovery, the Congress candidates raised this issue before the returning officers concerned. However, in majority of the places, there was no response received in this regard”.

Also read: Five reasons for the BJP’s unprecedented third-time win in Haryana