Haryana assembly election results 2024: Congress alleges 'misleading trends' on ECI website of vote counting

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Jairam Ramesh, Congress General Secretary in-charge of Communications, has claimed that the Election Commission's website is experiencing a slowdown in publishing the most recent trends in the vote counting for the Haryana Assembly election, ANI reported.

He questioned whether the BJP is trying to build pressure on the administration by sharing an "outdated and misleading" count.

"We are filing a memorandum in the next 5-7 minutes. We are lodging a complaint. We hope that the EC will answer our questions. The results of 10-11 rounds are already out but only 4-5 rounds have been updated on the EC website. This is a tactic to pressure the Administration," Ramesh told ANI.

"There is no need to be disheartened. The game is not over. Mind games are being played. We will not deter, there is no need to be disheartened. We are going to get the mandate. Congress is going to form the government," he added.

Earlier in the day, he said in a post on X, "Like the Lok Sabha elections, in Haryana, we are again witnessing slowing down of uploading up-to-date trends on the ECI website. Is the BJP trying to build pressure on administration by sharing outdated and misleading trends."

According to ANI, Ramesh has also written to the Election Commission, calling to issue immediate directions to officials to update the website with "true and accurate figures".

"Over the last two hours between 9-11 am, there has been an unexplained slowdown in updating of results on the ECI's website.

"As you can imagine this allows bad-faith actors to spin narratives that undermine the process. You can see examples of it already playing out on social media. Our fear is also that such narratives can then be used by these mala fide actors to influence processes where counting is still underway i.e. in most of the counting centres," he wrote in the letter.

"We request you to issue immediate directions to your officials to update the website with true and accurate figures so that false news and malicious narratives can be countered immediately" he added.

As per the trends released at 12 noon by the Election Commission, the BJP was leading on 49 seats while the Congress led on 35 seats. The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) were seen to be leading with one seat each while Independents and smaller parties were leading in four seats, ANI reported.

The BJP is on track to win the State Assembly election three times in a row, despite exit polls predicting that the Congress will win the race.

According to the latest update from the Election Commission, Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini led from the Ladwa constituency. As of 12 noon, Saini led with 32,708 votes over Congress' Mewa Singh.

Bhupinder Singh Hooda was seen leading from the Garhi Sampla-Kiloi seat with 56,875 votes over his nearest competitor Manju from the BJP party.

(With inputs from ANI)