Onlykashmir.in News Desk
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah has said that the opposition India Bloc is currently on “life support” and is in danger of going to the “ICU” due to internal differences and failure of the election strategy. He was speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit. Commenting on the state of the bloc after the Bihar elections, he said that sometimes this alliance manages to survive a setback but then it collapses again when the results come in front of Bihar.
He added that the mistakes of the India Bloc pushed Nitish Kumar back towards the NDA. Omar Abdullah termed the BJP’s election strategy as “unparalleled” and said that the ruling party fights every election as a life and death battle, while the opposition often shows negligence. Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 24×7 political model, he said that the BJP enters the next arena as soon as one election is over, while the opposition starts preparing two months in advance.
He said that if the opposition wants to give a serious challenge to the BJP, it will have to unite around the Congress, as the Congress is the only party with a nationwide presence. Referring to the Muslim vote bank, he said that traditional parties have neglected the community, which has benefited parties like AIMIM.
Omar Abdullah called the 2024 general elections a “public message to the Centre” and said that after this the government adapted its style of governance to a coalition format. He said that “this government now calls itself not BJP but NDA, these are small changes but important.” Regarding EVMs, he said that he has never been a supporter of the opinion that the machines are rigged, however, “manipulation” of elections is possible through electoral rolls and delimitations.
He termed the recent delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir as “electoral manipulation” and stressed that any change in the voter list should be done in a transparent and fair manner. Jokingly, he said that his stance on the matter was different from that of his father, Farooq Abdullah, who believed everything that came on WhatsApp.
