Not I.N.D.I.A. but Congress has suffered defeat in state elections: Omar Abdullah

Srinagar: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah said on Tuesday that the BJP’s securing dominant victory in the recently held state assembly elections in the country is the failure of the Congress and not that of the I.N.D.I.A. alliance.

“The I.N.D.I.A. alliance has not failed at all as some people are suggesting. However, certain statements which have come to the fore need to be discussed,” he said while speaking to reporters after paying floral tributes and saying fateha prayers at the mausoleum of his grandfather and legendary Kashmiri leader Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah on his 118th birth anniversary here.

Mr. Abdullah added, “The BJP’s victory in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh is to some extent the failure of the Congress and not the defeat of I.N.D.I.A.”

Elaborating, he said. “These elections were not fought by I.N.D.I.A., but by different political parties which are part of the alliance contested on their own. Hence, the outcome is to some extent the failure of the Congress party at an individual level.” The NC is also a constituent of the I.N.D.I.A.

Asked if the BJP’s 3-1 scoreline in these elections is a comforting signal for the party’s poll prospects in 2024, Mr. Abdullah said that it was to be seen if the poll outcome in the three states has set the tone for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections or not. “We will have to wait and see if the next Lok Sabha elections will go up on the same pattern or not,” he said.

Reacting to the claim that the BJP’s ‘hat-trick’ has given it guarantee for hat-trick in 2024, the NC leader said, “When the BJP faces defeat in state assembly elections it says these were not Parliament elections and will have no impact on the national elections. But when they win (an assembly election) they claim this is Modi Sahab’s victory, this is the Central government’s victory.”

He said that state elections have had little bearing on the general elections in the past. “If you want to know whether the assembly elections (held ahead of the Lok Sabha elections) should be seen as the semi-final of the big fight you have to go back five years. The Congress had won assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh but when Parliament elections were held it lost in all these states.”