Naveen Jindal's 'double engine' dig at Congress over Haryana drubbing

New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS) Amid all-round criticism of the Congress party over its humiliating defeat in Haryana elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Naveen Jindal drew a historical link to its poll debacle and also contested the 'surprising outcome' theory as being discussed in political circles.

He said that he has been saying for a long that Congress will bite the dust and the BJP will shine in the Haryana elections and this is what happened.

Jindal, in an interaction with IANS, said: "I used to explain why BJP had the edge over rivals. As it is said that history repeats itself, this is what happened in Haryana. The people of the state have voted for a double-engine government."

Further elaborating on the historical link with 2024 results, he said that in 57 years of the state’s existence, Haryana has seen a unique trend.

"The party which rules the Centre forms the government in the state also. This has been the trend for the past 57 years with a brief two-year interruption in 1987-89, when Congress ruled the Centre while INLD gained power in Haryana," Jindal pointed out.

The three-time MP from Haryana's Kurukshetra further said that people of the state have firm belief in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership at the Centre and Nayab Singh Saini at the state level and hence, they voted for the double-engine government for a record third term.

Punching holes in the popular perception that Congress had the upper hand in the election, he sarcastically said, "there is no solution to delusion. One may build castles in the air, who can stop it".

"In Congress, leaders keep vying for personal interests, but for BJP, people's welfare remains paramount. BJP's voters cast their ballot silently and this time also, they reposed faith in a government under Nayab Singh Saini and his predecessor who have been providing employment with utmost transparency," he remarked.

The BJP MP, however, refrained from commenting on the factional feud in Congress, considering it to be the party's internal matter, but showed the mirror to the grand old party on the latter's claims that the manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) led to its poll defeat.

"Blaming the EVMs for poll defeat is the most illogical and implausible excuse," he said and asked Congress to look within rather than shifting the blame on machines.

"Wherever the party wins, it doesn't find any problem, but where it loses, it starts making EVMs the scapegoat. It's time that the party accepts the reality," he said.

--IANS

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