The differences within the INDIA alliance over the issue of EVMs have come to the fore. The Congress party, responding to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s remarks on EVMs, questioned his approach toward alliance partners after becoming the Chief Minister.
In a post on X, Congress leader Manickam Tagore said, “It’s the Samajwadi Party, NCP, and Shiv Sena UBT that have spoken against EVMs.”
He asked the J&K CM to verify his facts and stated, “The Congress CWC resolution clearly addresses the ECI only.”
“Why this approach to our partners after being CM?” he added.
The Congress MP’s response came a day after J&K CM Omar Abdullah, in an interview with news agency PTI, responded to the Congress party’s objections to the usage of EVMs in elections. He remarked, “When you get a hundred-plus members of Parliament using the same EVMs, and you celebrate that as a sort of 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.”
He further said that even when he lost elections, he never complaint about the EVMs.
“How can you have problems with the EVMs and then continue to fight elections… If you don’t trust the machines, then you shouldn’t be fighting elections… You can’t say that if I win, I am going to keep quiet and if I lose, then something is wrong with the machines,” he said.
Omar Abdullah’s party, JKNC, is part of the INDIA alliance, which fought against the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress party is also part of Omar Abdullah’s government in Jammu and Kashmir.
