Election Commission seeks report on Haryana Rajya Sabha poll after congress complaint

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission today sought a report from the Returning Officer in the Rajya Sabha polls after Congress alleged misuse of state machinery to defeat R K Anand, a candidate backed by it, and demanded cancellation of the election.

Based on the report from the returning officer, the Commission will take a decision on the future course of action, sources said.

However, experts said once the polls are over and results declared, the only course open was for the affected party to file an election petition as the Commission has little role to play.

Congress has claimed there was no "internal sabotage" that caused the defeat.

INLD, which had originally backed Anand, had alleged that Congress leader and former Chief Minister B S Hooda and BJP were "responsible" for the 14 votes of party MLAs being declared invalid in Saturday's Rajya Sabha election, leading to the victory of BJP-supported independent candidate Subhash Chandra.

The Congress leaders and Anand accused Chandra, a media baron, of "playing fraud on the democracy and Constitution" with the help of an independent MLA and some EC officials.