Omar Abdullah's message to ally Congress after Haryana shocker, poor J&K show

Despite the INDIA bloc securing a victory in the J&K Assembly polls, the National Conference did the heavy lifting and carried the alliance.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said the Congress would need to have "deep deliberations" on its shock defeat in Haryana and its lacklustre performance in Jammu. Despite the INDIA bloc securing a victory in the J&K Assembly polls, held after a decade, the National Conference did the heavy lifting and carried the alliance.

"The BJP formed the government for the third time in Haryana. The Congress will need to have deep deliberations on this, but that is not my work," Abdullah said. The remark, coming from a senior ally of the INDIA bloc, is seen as a subtle message to the Congress to return to a more cooperative approach.

In Haryana, the Congress failed to stop the BJP from forming a government for the third consecutive time despite anti-incumbency.

In J&K, the National Conference won 42 of the 51 seats it contested, while the Congress won just 6 of the 32 seats. In Jammu, where the Congress was expected to boost the alliance with better ground presence and appeal, it won just a single seat.

It is the worst performance of the Congress in the region, which has become a BJP stronghold. The saffron party won 29 seats despite the anti-incumbency factor.

A leadership vacuum, lacklustre campaigning by Congress bigwigs, and failure to consolidate the Dalit votes in Jammu are being seen as the major reasons behind the party's poor performance.

In fact, during the campaigning, Omar Abdullah had publicly stated that the Congress was not focusing on Jammu, where it was expected to do the heavy lifting and take on the BJP. It was exactly why the Congress was given to contest a lion's share of seats in the Hindu-majority region.

"It does not matter what Congress does in Kashmir, what matters is how Congress fares in Jammu," Abdullah had remarked bitterly last month.

Congress's defeat in Haryana and a below par performance in J&K will have a bearing on the three upcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi. The Haryana setback leaves very little elbow room for the party to drive a hard bargain during seat-sharing talks with the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies.