'Haven't forgotten ballot stuffing': Omar Abdullah embarrasses Congress again, asks, 'if not EVM, then what'

In a major embarrassment for Congress, INDIA bloc ally and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah sharpened his critique of the opposition's demand to revert to ballot paper voting, pointing to the malpractice of "ballot stuffing" in the past. On Wednesday, Abdullah firmly reiterated his support for Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and said he has not forgotten when votes were fraudulently cast when the elections used to happen through ballot papers.

Abdullah questioned the logic of rejecting EVMs only after unfavorable results. "If someone has a complaint regarding EVMs, that complaint should remain throughout the year. Complaints cannot be raised only when you lose,” he said. "Should we go back to the ballot paper? Have we forgotten what used to happen with ballot paper? Votes were inserted in ballot boxes...ballot stuffing. I have not forgotten it. My first and second elections happened through ballot boxes. Then these machines came. If not EVMs, then what?”

Abdullah's National Conference and Congress are part of the INDIA bloc and they had contested assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir together. 

The opposition parties like Congress and Samajwadi Party have been demanding elections through ballot papers. This demand, however, intensified recently after Congress suffered a shocking defeat in Haryana and Maharashtra. 

On November 26, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge voiced his skepticism, calling for a return to ballot papers. He claimed, "The votes of all the poor and oppressed communities are going to waste. They should all demand voting by ballot paper. Let them keep EVMs with them. We don't want EVMs; we want voting on ballot paper. Then they will know what their position is and where they stand."

In an earlier interview, Abdullah dismissed Congress' objections to EVMs, highlighting the inconsistency in their arguments. "When you get a hundred-plus members of Parliament using the same EVMs, and you celebrate that as a victory, 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 remarked.

Abdullah emphasised that electoral integrity relies on consistency and trust in the system, irrespective of outcomes. "If you have problems with EVMs, then you should be consistent in those problems. Electoral machines remain the same regardless of the election outcome. One day voters choose you, the next day they don’t," he said, recalling his own experiences of facing defeat in Lok Sabha polls while later securing a majority in assembly elections.