After Omar’s remarks, BJP doubles down on Rahul

New Delhi: 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 (EVMs).

“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 NC leader has conveyed his message bluntly to Gandhi due to the conduct of the Leader of Opposition in the LS ok 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.

Abdullah had asked the Congress to justify its leadership role in the alliance instead of taking it for granted. The NC leader emphasised that leadership “has to be earned” and cannot be taken for granted.

He also dismissed the Congress party’s vehement objection to EVMs 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, you can’t then a few months later turn around and say... we don’t like these EVMs,” Abdullah

had said.