Jammu & Kashmir chief minister makes veiled mockery of Congress leadership and reveals his rebellion via series of twitter #notettoself
The Congress party was sweeped out of the four states which went to elections. For Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, it was a blow by the old rival. In Chhatisgarh, the defeat was marginal. But in the power seat Delhi, it received a deep wound from a newbie.
As Congress stood dumbstruck by the mandate given by the people of four states on a sunny Sunday, people laughed at its incapacity to read the words written large everywhere.
Not only that, its allies too took the opportunity to learn and rub a bit of salt on its wound.
As trends of the elections started pouring in, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah wrote on his twitter handle: “I’m glued to my TV waiting to watch the trends and results start coming in. Call it morbid curiosity.” As soon as the debutant AAP crossed the predicted 10 seats level, he started thinking out loud about those who had given six seats to AAP in one of the surveys. Omar tweeted: “Which was the post poll survey that gave AAP 6 seats? You need to sack your pollsters, they clearly stayed at home to fill questionnaires.”
But the next that came from him, was a serious salt-rubbing on the UPA government trying to escape by opening its kitty for the people. “Notes to self for 2014 – voters will see through crude attempts to buy support with last minute populist schemes,” he tweeted.
In single line, Omar not only declared his discontent with the schemes that Sonia Gandhi led NAC pitched and forced on the government, he also revealed his rebellion.
As time passed, his tweets became more interesting. “Big public meetings don’t always mean votes but poorly attended ones definitely indicate big trouble,” he tweeted next.
Half of his tweet may be showing his discontent with BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, but the later clause was a jibe on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi who has not been much of a crowd puller in the entire campaigning process for these states.
In fact, he became more cautious about Modi for the later’s rallies, including the one in Jammu, were a big crowd puller. “Note to self #2014 there is no “wave” but the effect on their cadre is obvious. Can’t afford to underestimate this going ahead,” he thought.
Coming back to the point where all the parties discarded AAP as a no-wonder thing, and Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit – who also lost to party’s leader Arvind Kejriwal by over 25,000 votes – thought “nothing” of, he reminded himself not to do it again.
“Notes to self for 2014 – never underestimate the underdog/newcomer with a fresh face and message,” he lastly posted.
The Congress party was unable to accept their defeat till long. And the tweets added to the bewilderment. Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarjan when asked about Omar’s mocking tweets responded in a very bitter way. “The way he tweeted about his father without knowing anything leaves nothing for us to say,” she responded.
It should be noted that both the Lok Sabha and state legislative assembly elections are scheduled in Jammu and Kashmir next year. With Rahul proving himself a total political failure and Congress losing it all, Omar may give his party’s alliance with it a re-thought.
