Opening another friction point with an important ally, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has dismissed the Congress party’s vehement objections to Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and echoed the BJP’s defence of the technology. He asserted that if there is a problem with EVMs, political parties should maintain consistency in their stance.

“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 said, PTI reported.

When asked that he sounded suspiciously like a BJP spokesman, Abdullah responded, “No, it’s just that… what’s right is right.”

He stated that he speaks based on principles, not partisan loyalty and used his support for infrastructure projects like the Central Vista as an example of his independent thinking.

“Contrary to what everybody else believes, I think that what’s happening with this Central Vista project in Delhi is a damn good thing. I believe constructing a new Parliament building was an excellent idea. We needed a new Parliament building. The old one had outlived its utility,” he said.

When asked whether he believed the opposition, particularly the Congress, was barking up the wrong tree by focusing on EVMs, Abdullah responded, “If you have issues with the EVMs, you should remain consistent in your stance on them.”

The grand old party expressed doubts about the EVM’s infallibility after losing in Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly polls,

Abdullah’s comments reflect his National Conference party’s growing dissatisfaction with the Congress with which it was allied during the September Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

He emphasised that he never questioned the reliability of the EVMs and electoral machines remain the same regardless of the election outcome.