Overview
- Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi, the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said the opposition alliance keeps slipping after brief revivals, with the Bihar result exposing its fragility.
- He argued the bloc’s handling of partners pushed Nitish Kumar back to the NDA and pointed to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s exclusion from Bihar seat-sharing as a warning sign for cohesion.
- Abdullah contrasted the BJP’s 24x7 election machine with the opposition’s late starts and said any credible challenge must coalesce around the Congress as the only pan-India partner.
- Rejecting claims of EVM rigging, he warned that manipulation can occur through voter-list changes or constituency redrawing, citing Jammu and Kashmir’s recent delimitation and revision exercises.
- BJP leaders mocked the alliance as already dead, while RJD’s Manoj Jha urged restraint and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi called for a full meeting, with no formal realignment reported.