Cong 'tech team' to probe 'discrepancies'

As the Congress central leadership continued to attribute its Haryana defeat to the manipulation of the electoral process, some voices also came out from within the party alleging poll mismanagement by the leadership. After holding a Haryana poll review meeting here by the AICC brass, the leadership has decided to depute a 'technical team' to look into "complaints and discrepancies" noted by the party candidates, a statement from Congress president's office said. The move amounts to holding a parallel probe, after party submitting it's complaints to the Election Commission for a probe.

"The Congress party will issue a detailed response based on the fact-finding team's report," it said.

Interestingly, the AICC, which had slammed exit polls for wrongly predicting a big BJP win in the LS poll, cited the wrong Haryana exit poll projections of a Congress victory to support its claim that the party's defeat was unexpected and due to electoral manipulation.


"We met to review Haryana election results. You know what exit polls, opinion polls, and surveys predicted. The results were surprising. Result differences were large between exit surveys and actual outcomes. That and its causes were discussed. We will proceed accordingly, "AICC treasurer and Haryana polls screening committee head Ajay Maken said.

The final review meeting was held by Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, KC Venugopal, Ajay Maken, Deepak Babaria, and Ashok Gehlot, who had oversaw the AICC poll management/candidate selection choices in Haryana. The state Congress leaders may be called for a meeting next week.