New Delhi: The BJP on Monday latched onto Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s sharp take on the Congress over a host of issues to attack Rahul Gandhi, saying if he does not know how to fight elections then he should not blame Electronic Voting Machines.
“Leadership is not earned and not demanded. You have to have the qualities of a leader. You cannot impose yourself,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said at a press conference, targeting the Congress leader.
He said the National Conference leader has conveyed his message bluntly to Gandhi due to the conduct of the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha.
Patra said even Congress allies have realised the legacy of the Gandhi family and the main opposition party. The BJP spokesperson claimed that the INDIA bloc was the “biggest scam” and that its allies fight polls separately and project different leaders as the face of the opposition alliance.
In an exclusive interview to PTI, Abdullah had asked the Congress to justify its leadership role in the alliance instead of taking it for granted. The National Conference leader emphasised that leadership “has to be earned” and cannot be taken for granted.
He also dismissed the Congress party’s vehement objection to Electronic Voting Machines and echoed the BJP’s defence — you can’t accept election results when you win, and blame EVMs when you lose.
“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 had said.
Patra also cited the NC leader’s rejection of doubts over EVMs as the chief minister had noted that his party won the assembly polls in the Union Territory after losing in the Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress should understand that blaming EVMs will not help as its allies are now speaking about it, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said.
“The Congress should understand when INDI alliance members are saying it… Mamata ji, Sharad Pawar ji, Akhilesh ji are also saying this… you cannot only blame EVM.”
“The Congress should realise their mistake because we also want constructive opposition. We don’t want the opposition to be weak… The Congress should introspect and improve themselves,” Joshi told reporters outside Parliament.
Dinesh Sharma of the BJP said Abdullah “spoke the truth”.
“Some day he will also speak the truth on Article 370, how BJP has done a favour to the nation by abrogating it!” he said.
“The Congress’ allies also know that elections through EVMs are fair. They are happy when they win and complain when they lose. Their drama has been exposed,” he told reporters outside Parliament.
JD(U) MP Sanjay Jha said, “We are from Bihar. We have seen how booths were captured and the weaker sections were not allowed to vote. Since the EVMs came, the poor could also vote. The Congress goes around carrying a copy of the Constitution and is demolishing all Constitutional institutions.
However, INDIA bloc constituent the Samajwadi Party’s MP Anand Bhadauria said his party has always been against EVMs. “The SP and Akhilesh (Yadav) ji have said we will win 80 seats (from Uttar Pradesh) and remove EVMs. The SP has always been against the EVMs and will continue to oppose it.”
The Congress’ Lok Sabha MP from Barabanki Tanuj Punia said the party has always maintained that it is against EVMs.
“We are consistent… Even when we win, we have always said EVMs should be done away with. We won more seats in Uttar Pradesh, but we still said it should be done away with,” he said. “Several developed nations have rejected EVMs because there is a possibility of manipulation.”
“Even if we come to power on EVMs, we will still remove EVMS. It is a threat to democracy,” Imran Masood of the Congress said.
