Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday criticised INDIA bloc ally Congress over its Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) rigging allegations, echoing a defence similar to that stated by BJP that a party cannot accept election results when it wins and turn around and blame EVMs after defeat. He also asked the Congress to stop whining and accept the poll results and opt out of contesting polls if it doesn't trust the voting mechanism.
"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 while speaking to news agency PTI.
Asked if his remarks sounded similar to those of a BJP spokesperson, Abdullah quipped: "God forbid!", adding, "No, it's just that...what’s right is right".
The National Conference (NC) leader further said that his opinion is based on principles and not partisan loyalty, as he voiced his support for the Central Vista infrastructure project as an example of independent thinking.
"Contrary to what everybody else believes, I think that what's happening with this Central Vista project in Delhi is a damn good thing. I believe constructing a new Parliament building was an excellent idea. We needed a new Parliament building. The old one had outlived its utility," he said, praising the project.
Reacting to the concerns raised by the Congress regarding the EVMs, Omar Abdullah stated that the parties shouldn't contest elections if they doubt the voting mechanism. "If you have problems with the EVMs, then you should be consistent in those problems," he said.
Following its losses in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Congress expressed doubts over the EVMs and the unexpected election outcome, demanding a return to paper ballots and claiming the EVMs were "unreliable".
However, Abdullah dismissed these claims, stressing that voting machines remain the same regardless of the results and that it should not be used as an excuse for defeat, PTI reported.
"One day voters choose you, the next day they don't," he said, citing his own example of Lok Sabha elections loss but winning the September Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir. "I never blamed the machines," he said.
The remarks made by Abdullah have added to the ongoing tensions between National Conference and the Congress, which erupted during the September Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir. The NC leaders have blamed the Congress for not making sufficient efforts during the poll campaign and leaving majority of the work for the NC. Despite this, the NC won 42 seats while the Congress managed to secure just six in the 90-member Assembly.