“Can’t Say You Don’t Like EVMs Because…”: Ally Junks Congress’ Charge

New Delhi:

At a time when Congress and its allies have raised questions on the Digital Voting Machines (EVM) and demanded a return to poll voting, INDIA alliance member Nationwide Convention has stated one must be “constant” in questioning the voting technique.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, additionally the vice-president of Congress ally Nationwide Convention, instructed information company PTI in an interview that it’s fallacious to query EVMs solely when outcomes do not meet expectations.

“Once you get 100 plus members of Parliament utilizing the identical EVMs, and also you have fun that as form of a victory to your celebration, you may’t then a number of months later flip round and say… we do not like these EVMs as a result of now the election outcomes aren’t going the best way we want them to,” Mr Abdullah stated. When he was instructed that his remarks echoed the BJP’s counter to the Congress’s EVM cost, Mr Abdullah stated, “God forbid… No, it is simply that… what’s proper is correct.”

“In case you have issues with the EVMs, then you ought to be constant in these issues,” he stated, including that events shouldn’t contest polls if they don’t belief the voting technique.

Citing his instance of shedding within the Lok Sabha election and scoring an enormous win within the Meeting polls months later, he stated, “At some point voters select you, the subsequent day they do not. I by no means blamed the machines.”

Within the Jammu and Kashmir Meeting polls this yr, — the primary after the Centre revoked its particular standing and turned it right into a Union Territory — the Omar Abdullah-led Nationwide Convention posted a stellar present by successful 48 seats within the 95-member Meeting. The Congress, which fought the polls in alliance with Nationwide Convention, received six seats.

Mr Abdullah stated he spoke on ideas as a substitute of partisan loyalty. In one other comment at odds with the Congress line, the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister praised the Narendra Modi authorities for infrastructure initiatives just like the Central Vista.

“Opposite to what all people else believes, I believe that what’s occurring with this Central Vista undertaking in Delhi is a rattling good factor. I imagine establishing a brand new Parliament constructing was a superb thought. We wanted a brand new Parliament constructing. The previous one had outlived its utility,” he stated.

Mr Abdullah’s remarks come amid the protest by the Congress and a few of its allies towards the EVM voting technique after its huge losses in Haryana and Maharashtra. The BJP has trashed the allegations and pointed to the Opposition’s win in Jharkhand, which voted together with Maharashtra.

The Nationwide Convention chief’s statements additionally come amid rumblings inside the INDIA Opposition bloc, with the Trinamool Congress demanding a change on the prime and naming its chief Mamata Banerjee as chief of the alliance.

On a query concerning this concern, Mr Abdullah acknowledged that there’s disquiet amongst some INDIA companions as they felt Congress was not doing sufficient to earn the bloc’s management.

“By advantage of being the only largest celebration in Parliament, and in addition having the chief of opposition in each the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, the truth that they’ve a pan-India footprint, which no different celebration can lay declare to, they’re pure form of leaders of an opposition motion,” he stated.

“But there’s a sense of disquiet amongst among the allies as a result of they really feel the Congress is “not doing sufficient to justify it or to earn it or to maintain it. That is one thing the Congress would possibly want to think about.” Mr Abdullah praised former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and stated described her as a frontrunner of unparalleled stature inside the Opposition. “When the INDIA bloc comes collectively, she performs an necessary management position,” he added.