Congress complains to EC, says RS polls in Haryana rigged

New Delhi, June 13 Alleging that the Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana on June 11 were rigged under a "deep-rooted conspiracy", the Congress on Monday asked the Election Commission to "countermand" the elections and order re-polling.

A delegation led by Haryana Congress chief Ashok Tanwar on Monday met the EC and submitted a memorandum to underline how the elections to the two Rajya Sabha seats from the state were rigged and why it should be held again.

"There is a deep-rooted conspiracy to see that all votes cast by the Congress MLAs were rejected on the ground that they were marked with different pen than supplied by the Returning Officer," the memorandum read.

It said when ballot papers are provided to the voting MLAs, pens should have been made available to each of them with instruction to use that pen only while casting the vote, which was not done.

"There is a conspiracy to hijack and rig the elections so that Subhash Chandra was elected, although he didn't have sufficient numbers. The Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal had 17 and 18 clear votes," the Congress memorandum said.

Media baron Subhash Chandra -- an Independent candidate supported by the rulign Bharatiya Janata Party -- was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana, defeating Congress-backed Independent R.K. Anand. Chandra got 24 votes while Anand managed only 15.

As many as 14 votes were rejected in the 90-member assembly.

"In a clear case of conspiracy, a pen used for marking ballots was given to 13 voters to see to it that they voted with this particular pen so as to create ground for rejection. 

"Since this pen was made available to voters to mark the ballot, the votes could not have been rejected on this ground," it added.

The Congress has demanded that "all the videography and photographs (of the election process) be preserved" and the elections "countermanded and polls held again" after getting a report from a specially-appointed observer.