Congress for fresh J&K polls, not tieup

Amid rising uncertainty over the government formation in Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress has indicated preferring fresh Assembly polls instead of going with the non-BJP parties. “If the elections are held today, the Congress-National Conference combine stands ton win,” said a top Congress strategist.

The Congress, which got 12 seats in the 87-member House, says the mandate is for the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party (28 seats) and the BJP (25). But, if they can’t form a government after the death of chief minister Mufti Muhammed Sayeed in January this year, the only option left is to have a fresh Assembly elections.

If the PDP-BJP alliance is unnatural, the Congress-National Conference and the PDP too cannot come together due to political compulsions. Besides, this formation could give space to their rivals in the state.

“People have punished us... and the mandate is to sit in the Opposition,” said the Congress strategist thereby rejecting the option of coming together of the anti-BJP parties.

However, the Sonia Gandhi-led party sees that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir would ultimately help the Congress-National Conference combine whenever elections are held. This is because the BJP cannot dilute its ideological position in the state while the PDP can’t be comfortable with the saffron party for long. And after prolonging the President’s Rule in the state it would be seen as a setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

While the BJP cannot repeat its performance in Jammu, it is still unacceptable in the Kashmir Valley, insiders view.

The J&K Assembly polls, held after the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, had seen key parties — the Congress, the National Conference, the PDP and BJP — fight the battle separately. While the Congress had the history of sharing power with the PDP and the National Conference,the current BJP is unacceptable to these three parties for obvious reasons.

The NC leader and former chief minister Omar Abdullah is mounting pressure on the PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti to take a position saying that she cannot keep the entire state guessing on government formation.