Haryana poll result 'shocking and unacceptable': Congress

Earlier in the day, the Congress had written a letter to the Election Commission, complaining of an "unexplained slowdown" in updating results for the Haryana election.

"As you can imagine, this allows bad-faith actors to spin narratives that undermine the process. You can see examples of it already playing out on social media. Our fear is also that such narratives can then be used by these mala fide actors to influence processes where counting is still underway i.e. in most of the counting centres," senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote.

The Election Commission dismissed the charges and said approximately 25 rounds across all constituencies were being updated every five minutes.

In its response, the poll body also said it "unequivocally rejects your (Mr Ramesh's) attempt to surreptitiously give credence to irresponsible, unfounded and uncorroborated malafide narratives".

Addressing a press conference around 5 pm, Ramesh said, "The results in Haryana are totally unexpected, completely surprising and counter-intuitive. It goes against the reality. It goes against what the people in Haryana had made their mind up for, which was for change and transformation. Under these circumstances, it is not possible for us to accept the results that have been announced today.

"What we have seen today in Haryana is a victory for manipulation, a victory for subverting the will of the people and it is a defeat for transparent, democratic processes. The chapter on Haryana is not complete."

"All afternoon, I have been in touch with the Election Commission. They have replied to my complaints, I have replied to their reply. We have received very serious complaints about the process of counting and the functioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in at least three districts in Haryana. There are more that are coming in. This information is being collected and we hope to present this to the Election Commission today or the day after," he added.

Upsetting exit poll predictions, the BJP, which failed to secure an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year leading to a coalition government, salvaged its prestige in Haryana by bouncing back on Tuesday for a historic third consecutive term by bagging 49 of the 90 seats in the state assembly.

In Jammu and Kashmir, which concluded a historic election to pick its government after a decade and post abrogation of Article 370, the National Conference-Congress alliance has swept, bagging 49 of the 90 seats.