New Delhi: Stay alert and put in place measures to check any attempts of rigging on vote counting day, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi told the party’s Lok Sabha poll candidates on Sunday, according to sources.
Kharge and Gandhi interacted with Congress candidates during a virtual meeting which was also attended by party general secretaries Jairam Ramesh and K C Venugopal, legislative party leaders and state unit chiefs to review preparations for June 4 — the day when votes of the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls will be counted.
The sources said a standard operating procedure has been shared with the candidates for counting day.
Gandhi and Kharge asked Congress workers and leaders to not leave counting centres till all formalities are completed. They also called on Congress leaders to keep the morale high and stressed that the exit polls were aimed at demoralising the party cadre.
Exit polls on Saturday predicted that Prime Minister Modi will retain power for a third straight term, with the BJP-led NDA expected to win a big majority in the Lok Sabha polls.
Terming the exit polls “bogus”, the Congress on Sunday said they were a “deliberate attempt to justify rigging” of the elections and part of “psychological games” being played by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lower the morale of the INDIA bloc workers. Former Congress president Gandhi dubbed the exit polls as “Modi media poll”.
Ramesh said that the exit polls were “orchestrated and masterminded by the man whose exit is inevitable and guaranteed on June 4”.
“These are all part of the psychological games being played by the outgoing prime minister (Modi) and the outgoing home minister (Amit Shah). The outgoing home minister called up 150 district magistrates and collectors yesterday. The results that the exit polls have come up with, bear no relation to reality,” the Congress leader said.
Leaders of several INDIA bloc parties had also met here on Saturday and took stock of the opposition’s preparations leading up to the June 4 counting of votes polled in the Lok Sabha elections, and asserted they will get more than 295 seats, enough for them to form the next government.
The leaders of the alliance dwelt on a host of issues, including the precautions to be taken on the counting day on Tuesday, Kharge had told reporters after two-and-a-half-hour confabulations at his residence.
He had said they have instructed their party workers to not leave the counting halls till all formalities are completed.
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