Newly elected Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah has dismissed allegations of tampering with Electronic Voting Machines and said that he never blamed the EVMs.
His comments are in contrast with Congress — his ally and INDI Alliance counterpart. “When you get a hundred plus members of Parliament using the same EVMs, and you celebrate that as sort of a victory for your party, you can’t then a few months later turn around and say… we don’t like these EVMs because now the election results aren’t going the way we would like them to,” Abdullah said in an interview PTI on Friday.
Called out for suspiciously sounding like a BJP spokesman, Abdullah reacted with “God forbid! what’s right is right”. He said he speaks based on principles rather than with partisan loyalty.
The Chief Minister said parties should not contest elections if they do not trust the voting mechanism. “If you have problems with the EVMs, then you should be consistent in those problems,” he said while replying to a question about whether he thinks that the opposition in general and the Congress, in particular, is barking up the wrong tree by focusing on EVMs.
The National Congress leader emphasised that electoral machines remain the same regardless of the election outcome, and parties should not use them as a convenient excuse for defeat. “One day voters choose you, the next day they don’t,” he said and gave his own example of facing defeat in Lok Sabha polls while winning a majority in the September assembly polls. “I never blamed the machines,” he said.
Further citing his support for the Central Vista project, Abdallah said, “Contrary to what everybody else believes, I think that what’s happening with this Central Vista project in Delhi is a damn good thing. He believes that constructing a new Parliament building was much needed and that “the old one had outlived its utility.”
After its loss in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly polls, the Congress has expressed doubts about the EVM’s infallibility and the election outcome. It has demanded a return to the paper ballot.
Abdullah’s comments add to his National Conference party’s recent friction with the Congress, which allied with it during the September 2024 Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
Commenting anonymously, NC leaders have shown their disappointment for the Congress not campaigning enough during the latest elections. The NC however won 42 seats in the 90-member Assembly, while the Congress got six.
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