Omar Abdullah slams ally Congress over EVM charge: ‘When you get hundred plus seats…’

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah dismissed the Congress' objection to the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and said “if you have problems with the EVMs, then you should be consistent in those problems.”

Omar Abdullah made the remarks while speaking to news agency PTI.

“You can't accept election results when you win, and blame EVMs when you lose,” said Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister

“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 told the news agency on Friday.

Abdullah highlighted that if political parties have a problem with the voting system then they should not contest in the elections.

“If you have problems with the EVMs, then you should be consistent in those problems,” said Abdullah while responding to whether he thinks that the opposition, in general, and Congress, in particular, is barking up the wrong tree by focusing on EVMs cited the news agency.

Abdullah’s comments add to his party’s unhappiness with the Congress, which was allied with it during the September Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. 

Abdullah 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,” said Abdullah referring to his defeat in Lok Sabha polls while winning a majority in the September assembly polls. “I never blamed the machines,” he said.

Meanwhile, the CM cited his support for infrastructure projects like the Central Vista as an example of his independent thinking, as per the news report.

“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.” .