NEW DELHI: Congress, which reacted to its Haryana debacle by blaming it on EVMs and rejecting the outcome as “unacceptable”, has determined to pause the road of assault and has turned the main focus inwards to look into the position of factional feuds and weaknesses that prevented a win.
The choice was taken at a evaluation assembly convened on Thursday by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, with the occasion brass agreeing that it’s going to agency up its place on EVMs as one of many key causes for the electoral loss solely after it had gathered “agency proof” of wrongdoing, sources stated.
An announcement issued by Kharge’s workplace later within the night stated the occasion has determined to depute a technical workforce to look into complaints and discrepancies famous by candidates. “Congress will subject an in depth response based mostly on the fact-finding workforce’s report on the counting course of and functioning of digital voting machines,” it stated.
To ‘keep away from unhealthy optics’, Hooda & Selja not invited to Congress meet
The deliberations, held in opposition to the backdrop of supporters of factions led by former Haryana CM B S Hooda and former Union minister Kumari Selja pointing fingers at one another, noticed Rahul Gandhi asserting the necessity for all to bury their variations and unite for the occasion’s curiosity. “The occasion’s curiosity is paramount,” a supply quoted him as saying within the assembly. Battle between rival factions is broadly seen to be the key think about Congress’s defeat.
Hooda, his loyalist and PCC chief Udai Bhan, Selja and her ally Randeep Singh Surjewala weren’t invited for the assembly, with sources attributing their exclusion to the priority to “keep away from unhealthy optics”. The occasion is planning to hold out booth-level evaluation by in search of a report from every candidate to check the elements that performed a job within the loss.
Chatting with reporters after the assembly, Ajay Maken stated, “As you all know, because the exit polls and opinion polls had confirmed, the outcomes have been surprising. There was a variety of distinction between the exit polls and the precise outcomes. We mentioned what may very well be the explanations.” On whether or not infighting had harm Congress’s possibilities within the polls, Maken stated, “There are numerous causes, from EC to inner variations, we now have mentioned all that and can maintain extra discussions going ahead.”
On Tuesday, occasion basic secretary Jairam Ramesh and spokesperson Pawan Khera had blamed the “sluggish counting of EVMs” for the occasion’s defeat to BJP: a bitter shock which has helped the saffron rival acquire momentum and raised doubts concerning the viability of Congress’s planks — assured MSP buy of whole farm produce, scrapping of Agnipath scheme, caste census and an “imperilled Structure”.
The rejection of the result, a primary for a nationwide occasion, drew a powerful protest from EC, which rejected all the fees and raised eyebrows in impartial quarters. BJP, after all, lashed out at Congress.
In addition to Kharge and Rahul, basic secretary Ok C Venugopal, senior observers for the polls Ashok Gehlot and Maken, in addition to secretaries for the state participated within the evaluation assembly. Occasion in-charge of the state Deepak Babaria joined the assembly on-line from Ahmedabad.
