EC seeks report from Haryana CEO on use of abusive language towards AAP on poll portal

AAP candidate from Kurukshetra Sushil Kumar Gupta said on Friday that the party had sought permission for two events on Sunday via the Election Commission’s Suvidha portal for political parties and candidates. One of the applications was rejected with “koni dende (rejected, in Haryanvi)” and the other was denied with an abuse. While the portal is the EC’s centralised system for processing permissions for rallies during polls, the applications are processed by local district officials, using a portal called ENCORE to respond.

The Deputy Commissioner of Kaithal appeared to confirm the allegation, saying in a series of posts on X: “An incident was reported on 4th April 2024 wherein the user ID of Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) Kaithal, Parliamentary Constituency (PC) Kurukshetra, was misused by hitherto unknown person/s to access the ENCORE portal, and make derogatory posts therein.”

“Action, including suspension of 5 persons suspected to be involved in the incident and registration of FIR No. 0012 dated 5.4.2024 at Cyber Crime Police Station, Kaithal, has been taken. Besides this an enquiry is under way to ascertain further details,” the deputy commissioner wrote.

According to EC sources, the Commission has asked for a report from the CEO on the incident. Reacting to the incident, the Haryana CEO said in a series of posts on X on Saturday that a total of 201 applications for events, use of vehicles, permit for use of loudspeaker, etc had been received, of which 113 had been accepted. The CEO said the AAP had applied for 82 permissions, of which 44 had been accepted.

“The incident regarding Kaithal mentioned above is extremely condemnable and has been treated most strictly by the ECI. In this matter, an FIR has already been registered, investigations are being conducted by the cyber cell, Kaithal. DGP, Haryana has been requested to ensure that investigations are completed as soon as possible. Meanwhile 5 officials have been placed under suspension,” the CEO said.

Meanwhile, the AAP has raised allegations on the conduct of the EC this week. On Friday, party leader Atishi said at a press conference that the EC’s notice to her had been reported in the media before it was emailed to her. Acting on a BJP complaint, the poll panel on Friday issued a notice to Atishi asking her to back her claim that the BJP had approached her to join the party if she wished to “save” her political career – an allegation she made at a press conference on Monday. She alleged that the notice had been shared by the BJP with the media before it reached her.

On Saturday morning, Atishi said in a post on X that the party filed a complaint with the EC at 11.30 am on Friday regarding “objectionable hoardings” against the AAP by the BJP in Delhi. “It has been more than 24 hours, but @ECISVEEP has not issued any notice to BJP? Is notice only issued when BJP files complaints?” she said.