'Congress could have...': Here's what 'angry' Rahul Gandhi told party workers at review meet after Haryana poll debacle

After the Haryana poll debacle, Congress MP and LoP Rahul Gandhi attended the review meeting called by party president Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence in Delhi. Among those present were the party's Haryana observers Ashok Gehlot, Ajay Maken, Deepak Babaria and KC Venugopal. 

Sources said that the Congress MP remained largely quite, but when his turn came, he observed two things; one being that Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and the Election Commission of India (EC) "have much to answer" and another was that "the local leaders were more interested in their own progress than that of the party", leaving a loud silence in the room. 

According to the sources, his attack was aimed at all, and not just the Hoodas -- Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his son Deepender Hooda. Notably, senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who led the ticket distribution in Haryana, was absent from the meeting. 

Kumari Selja, a prominent Dalit face of the Congress in Haryana whose name emerged in the potential Chief Minister candidates' list, did not show up at the meeting. 

According to a report by Business Today, 70 candidates of the Hooda camp were given tickets and nine candidates belonged to the Selja camp. Due to this, Selja sidestepped from campaigning for the party and also ditched the manifesto launching event. 

Moreover, Rahul Gandhi also sought a detailed report on what went wrong in terms of counting. When many leaders kept blaming the EVMs, Gandhi reportedly got miffed and left the meeting. 

Congress demands sealing of EVMs with high battery percentage 

A day after Congress flagged the purported "discrepancies in the EVMs", the party also demanded the ECI to seal those machines displaying high battery percentage, despite being used for the entire day. 

"There were machines that were at 99 per cent and other normal machines were at 60-70 per cent on the day of counting. We demanded that those machines should be sealed and secured until the investigation is complete. We also told ECI that in the next 48 hours, we will also present the remaining complaints to them", Congress leader Pawan Khera earlier told mediapersons. 

The Haryana assembly poll results came as a bolt out of the blue for the grand old party which clinched 37 seats, defying the exit poll predictions. The BJP, on the other hand, crossed the majority mark by securing 48 seats in the 90-member-legislative assembly.