Finance minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the BJP is fully committed to the agenda of governance in J&K has led to speculation in the state that a vast section of the PDP MLAs is inclined to forming a government with the saffron party and may get support also from sections of their counterparts from other parties.
These assumptions were only strengthened when a BJP MLA Ravinder Raina said on Sunday said the party will “never” accept new conditions for alliance put forth by PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and that “several PDP legislators who are in favour of the formation of the government in the state and who also don’t want midterm polls in the state are in touch with the BJP leadership for the formation of the government.”
Mr Jaitley had said the political resolution emphasised the party’s commitment to the “agenda of governance” in J&K. “We stand fully committed as far as agenda of governance is concerned,” Mr Jaitley told reporters on the issue of government formation in J&K.
But the constitutional experts have ruled out split in the PDP or any other party as the state’s stringent anti-defection law prevents MLAs from defying their party whip.
As per the J&K state anti-defection law, even if all the MLAs defy the party whip, they are liable to be disqualified. The 13th amendment to the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, enacted in 2006, during the tenure of Ghulam Nabi Azad as chief minister, omitted the provision of split in legislature parties. The amendment deleted para three of schedule 7 of the J&K Constitution, according to which if one third MLAs of a party form a separate party, their group gets recognition in the House.
However, Ashraf Ali, a prominent lawyer from the state, said, “Yes it did. But as its stands after the amendment vertical cleavage into two changes the whole equation.”
Meanwhile, Independent MLA Sheikh Abdur Rashid met PDP president Mehbooba Mufti at her Fairview residence here on Sunday amid reports that fresh efforts of political realignment in the state have taken off at various levels. Though neither side said anything on the outcome of the meeting, Mr Rashid has in the past insisted on a non-BJP grand alliance involving the National Conference, Congress and other “secular-minded” MLAs from smaller parties and independents.
Earlier during the day on Sunday, J&K Congress chief Ghulam Ahmed Mir said that since the BJP believes in “divisive politics” it might be working on some underhand tactics to engineer defection in political parties in the State. He told local news agency KNS that he would like various political parties including PDP to be vigilant and keep a close watch on BJP’s moves. He said that like in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the saffron party might make some underhand efforts which need to be foiled.
Mr. Mir’s cautioning political parties came hours after senior BJP leader and Union Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters in Delhi that the political resolution at the party meet in Delhi emphasised its commitment to the ‘agenda of governance’ in Jammu and Kashmir. He said, “We stand fully committed as far as agenda of governance is concerned,” he said.
The BJP leaders from J&K including MLAs are camping in Delhi for the past couple of days for consultations with and convey their views to the party high command. Back in Srinagar, the PDP president is likely to hold a meeting with senior party leaders in the next few days to inform them about the last week’s developments on government formation.
The PDP and the BJP failed to end the deadlock as the meeting between Ms. Mehbooba and her counterpart in the alliance partner Amit Shah in Delhi on Thursday could not make any headway.
Jammu and Kashmir was placed under Governor’s rule on January 9 as alliance partners PDP and BJP delayed formation of new government necessitated by the demise of Chief Minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed. Later the PDP asked for clear-cut assurances from the BJP leadership on the State’s ‘reasonable needs’ as it felt the latter has only gone back on certain commitments made in their ‘Agenda of the Alliance’, the common-minimum-programme arrived for government formation in February-March 2015.
