The Congress will approach the Election Commission on Monday to protest against the misuse of government machinery in the Rajya Sabha elections for two seats in Haryana on Saturday, which led to indep
The Congress will approach the Election Commission on Monday to protest against the misuse of government machinery in the Rajya Sabha elections for two seats in Haryana on Saturday, which led to independent candidate R.K. Anand, backed by the party, losing the poll.
Party general secretary B.K. Hariprasad said they will approach the Election Commission on Monday. Asked whether the party suspected internal sabotage in the elections, including by ex-CM Bhpinder Singh Hooda, he replied in negative. Mr Hariprasad alleged that there was deliberate fraud in the elections by switching the pen, meant for marking the votes, so as to make the Congress votes invalid.
The votes of 14 Congress MLAs were declared invalid leading to the loss of Mr Anand.
“A probe by the Election Commission should be sought. This truth will come out in 24 hours,” he said in Chandigarh.
The defeat of Mr Anand came as a bolt from the blue for the Congress and its high command, which was confident that its strategy to trounce BJP-backed media baron and independent candidate Subhash Chandra would succeed.
Meanwhile, the Congress has crossed a million followers mark on Twitter, a milestone for the party, which was seen as a social media laggard till recently.
“Thank you everybody for making us reach one million. This is just the beginning,” the Opposition party said on its Twitter handle INC INDIA on Saturday.
“Meelon chale aaye hai, meelon abhi jana hai (We have travelled miles and have to go many more),” it said in Hindi.
The BJP had effectively used the social media during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls to create the Narendra Modi “magic” among the educated youth and the middle class. Social media savvy Modi and his followers used Twitter and other such media to the hilt to target the then Manmohan government and other Congress leaders.
Seeking to catch up on with Mr Modi and his social media team’s skills, the Congress had organised a workshop to train its spokespersons in handling digital media, in particular Twitter and Facebook, in August 2013.
