evm-talks-fuel-india-bloc-rift-as-congress-hits-back-at-omar

A war of words erupted between the Congress and its ally, Omar Abdullah, after the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister questioned the party’s stance on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Congress MP Manickam Tagore swiftly responded, asking Abdullah to “check his facts.”

“It’s the Samajwadi Party, NCP, and Shiv Sena (UBT) that have spoken against EVMs. Please check your facts. The Congress CWC (Congress Working Committee) resolution clearly addresses the ECI only. Why this approach to our partners after being Chief Minister?” Tagore tweeted on Monday.

Omar Abdullah’s National Conference, a key constituent of the INDIA bloc, had earlier criticised the Congress’s scepticism over EVMs.

In an interview, Abdullah contended that EVMs “cannot be a problem only when you lose elections.”

“When you get 100 plus MPs 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,” Abdullah said.

Drawing on his own electoral experience, Abdullah remarked, “When I lost in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, I never blamed 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.”

The Congress has, in recent months, joined opposition calls for a return to ballot paper voting, citing concerns over EVM reliability following electoral losses in states such as Haryana and Maharashtra. However, Abdullah’s remarks have added to the friction within the INDIA bloc.

 

The BJP wasted no time in seizing the opportunity to attack the Congress.

 

“EVMs can't be good when Congress wins and bad when they lose. Rahul Gandhi is increasingly looking like a loser no one wants to stand with,” BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya tweeted.

 

As the INDIA bloc navigates internal disagreements, the rift between the Congress and its allies threatens to overshadow their collective goal of challenging the BJP in the upcoming general elections.