Peoples’ Democratic Party MLAs will meet in Srinagar on Thursday to formally elect the legislature party leader in the run-up to government formation in J&K. Talk of the revival of the PDP-BJP alliance in the state started after PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Tuesday morning.
While Ms Mufti described the meeting as “very positive and good” and said she was “very satisfied” with it, the BJP called it “constructive and good”. To a specific query on whether the ongoing stalemate had ended, Ms Mufti said: “When you meet the Prime Minister of the country, naturally the solution to problems faced by the people of Jammu and Kashmir is more clear.”
Ms Mufti, consensus candidate for the CM’s post, will hold a “marathon meeting” with PDP legislators to brief them on the outcome of her latest round of talks with the BJP leadership, including the one-on-one meeting with the Prime Minister, before being elected legislature party chief, that seems inevitable. She will also discuss with her MLAs devising a strategy for a stable and responsive government with the BJP, party sources said. Senior party leaders and office-bearers, including members of its high-powered core group, will also attend the meeting, sources added.
After her election as legislature party leader, Ms Mufti will meet governor N.N. Vohra to stake the PDP’s claim to form a new coalition government with the BJP. Naeem Akhtar, a former minister and close confidant of the Muftis, said: “We are meeting on Thursday and hopefully the government should be in place by 29th of March.” The PDP had won 28 seats in the November-December 2014 polls, but after the death of its patron and former CM Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, on January 7 this year its tally has come down to 27.
The BJP, with 25 members in the 87-member House, is expected to write a separate letter of support for Ms Mufti to the governor. The National Conference and Congress have 15 and 12 members respectively, and the remaining seats are held by smaller parties and Independents.
The talks between the alliance partners reached a dead end last week when Ms Mufti’s half-hour meeting with BJP president Amit Shah ended in a fiasco, as both sides failed to find common ground on key issues. The PDP had earlier demanded that J&K-specific “confidence-building measures” be initiated by the Centre to create a congenial atmosphere for government formation. However, Mr Shah told Ms Mufti a government could not be formed on the basis of conditions. After that, both sides admitted efforts to revive the coalition had hit a roadblock.
But despite the bitterness over the failed meeting between Mr Shah and Ms Mufti, lines of communication remained open between the two sides. A series of meetings PDP vice-president Muzaffar Hussain Baig and party’s chief negotiator and former finance minister Haseeb A. Drabu had with BJP leaders in New Delhi in the past three days paved the way for broader reconciliation between Ms Mufti and Mr Shah earlier on Tuesday.
Later, she was invited by the Prime Minister for a one-on-one meeting as an affirmation of mutual understanding, seemingly ending the deadlock on government formation.
Ms Mufti described the meeting as “very positive” and “good” in addressing issues pertaining to the people of the state. Emerging after a 30-minute meeting with the PM, the PDP chief said: “We’re seeing a stalemate for the last two-three months over government formation, but today I’m satisfied. I’m very satisfied.”
Ms Mufti said the “future course of action” would be announced after her consultation with party legislators and other invitees to Thursday’s meeting.
Echoing her, PDP chief spokesman Mehboob Beg said her meeting with the PM was “very positive” and “the future course of action (on) government formation would be decided at the legislature party meeting on Thursday”.
Ms Beg said in a statement: “Following the sad demise of our leader Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, the PDP authorised party president Mehbooba Mufti to take a call on the party’s future course of action vis-à-vis government formation and her meeting with the Prime Minister today (Tuesday) and with BJP president Amit Shah earlier was a part of the same process.”
He confirmed that Ms Mufti would brief legislators about her deliberations with the PM. “The party will announce its future course of action and the next step after its legislature party meeting, which is the proper forum to take a call on such issues,” he added.
Regional Awami Itehad Party chief and Independent MLA Sheikh Abdur Rashid has accused the PDP leadership of hurting the sentiments of the state’s people and sacrificing its own self-respect to grab power.
“Kashmiris are neither beggars nor wanted some meagre concessions from New Delhi, but have been distancing from the Sangh Parivar, for its agenda being anti-Muslim, communal and that of hatred (sic)”, he said.
Mr Rashid said Ms Mufti, as a face-saver, was expecting to persuade Mr Modi to offer a dialogue to the Hurriyat Conference leadership for a permanent resolution of the dispute, talks on self-rule, and also an assurance that the BJP would respect the special status of the state, including Article 370 and a separate flag and constitution, “but the BJP made her have a shameless surrender and all her tall claims during the last two months have dashed to earth”. He added: “She should have surrendered the very first day after Mufti Sahib’s demise, rather than making things suspicious and sensational for about two months.”
He asked the PDP president to explain what stopped her from going for fresh polls or entering an alliance with secular forces. “Ms Mufti should tell people where did her so-called formula of self-rule disappear People were expecting she will rectify the huge mistakes committed by the PDP leadership in the past and prefer to dissolve the Assembly, but it is obvious she had neither been sincere to the people, nor to her own agenda,” he said.
