Haryana Rajya Sabha polls: EC calls candidates, complainants for inquiry

Chandigarh: The Election Commission on Wednesday asked to appear before it the three candidates who contested the Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana and also those who filed a complaint with the poll body alleging the pen provided for marking the votes was "replaced".

"They (the complainants) have given their complaint to EC... I will listen to their version. We have requested them to come for an inquiry," state's Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Singh Dahiya said.

Congress, INLD and Independent candidate RK Anand had moved EC, alleging someone had changed the original pen provided by the election officials with another one for a while which resulted in some votes being declared as invalid.

State Congress President Ashok Tanwar, who had filed a complaint on behalf of his party, said, "EC has called us as we had filed a complaint. All three candidates - (Union Minister) Birender Singh, Subhash Chandra and Anand have also been called."

Congress had claimed it was a "conspiracy" by BJP-RSS to defeat Anand, a candidate backed by it, and demanded countermanding of the election to both the Rajya Sabha seats, while INLD had alleged that Congress leader BS Hooda and BJP were "responsible" for the 14 votes of party legislators being declared invalid, leading to the victory of BJP-supported Independent candidate Subhash Chandra.

A team of the Election Commission had on Tuesday visited the Assembly secretariat in Chandigarh for an inquiry into the matter.

The Haryana Vidhan Sabha Secretary RK Nandal, who was the Returning Officer for the polls, had on Tuesday said there was very "rare chance" of the pen provided for marking the votes being changed.