New Delhi, Oct 8: The Congress on Tuesday raised concerns with the Election Commission of India (ECI) regarding an “unexplained slowdown” in the updating of Haryana election results on the ECI’s official website. The party has urged the Commission to ensure accurate and timely updates to prevent the spread of “false news and malicious narratives.”
Congress General Secretary in-charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, addressed the issue in a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners, pointing out that there had been a noticeable delay in result updates between 9 AM and 11 AM.
“As you can imagine, this allows bad faith actors to spin narratives that undermine the process,” Ramesh wrote. He warned that misleading information circulating on social media could influence the ongoing counting process in several centres.
Ramesh requested that the Election Commission issue immediate directives to its officials to update the website with accurate and timely figures to counter any false or misleading narratives that may arise.
Earlier, Ramesh had also posted on X (formerly Twitter), questioning whether the delay was a tactic to allow the BJP to “build pressure on the administration by sharing outdated and misleading trends.”
At the time of his letter, the latest trends shared by the ECI indicated that the BJP was leading in 49 seats, while the Congress was ahead in 35. The majority mark in the 90-member Haryana assembly is 46.