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.
