‘Congress Must Think Deep About Its Defeat In Haryana,’ Says Ally Omar Abdullah

National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah, who fought the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections in alliance with Congress, has reacted to Congress’s poor show in Haryana. Abdullah said Congress will have to introspect “deep” to find reasons for its defeat in Haryana, where the BJP is set to return for a third consecutive term.

“I had already said we were only wasting our time with these exit polls. But no one would have thought that the exit polls would be so wrong. Had it been 20 in place of 18 or 22 in place of 20, (we could have understood). But what happened was that 30 became 60 and 60 became 30,” the NC leader told reporters.

The exit polls had predicted a majority for the Congress in Haryana. “The Congress will have to go deep into it and find the reasons for its defeat,” Abdullah said, adding, “My job is to run the NC and help the alliance here, which I will.”

The NC and Congress are set to form a government in J&K — the first since the abrogation of Article 370 five years ago.