PDP, BJP put onus of Govt formation on each other

She went into mourning, refused to make her mind known about government formation, and Jammu and Kashmir was placed under Governors rule under Section 92 of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution.

The BJP said that its agenda is to ensure peace and development in J & K. “We chose to ahead with the PDP despite the ideological differences”.

Earlier, senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh called on Mehbooba at the state circuit house here. While she is afraid of the uncertainty a fresh poll entails, at the same time she is unready to give the new experiment another shot.

Meanwhile, National Conference on Thursday lashed out at PDP President Mehbooba Mufti for her “baseless and inaccurate remarks” that misrepresented the sentiments and political struggle of the people of Shehar-e-Khaas. Within days–or was it hours?–the BJP and the PDP came together to form the government, while the voters who had believed their campaigns looked on aghast. “She (Mehbooba Ji) has categorically stated that some CBMs need to taken by the Centre”.

Jammu/Srinagar: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti’s hardening of stand and seeking “confidence-building measures” from the centre has made the task of forming a new government in Jammu and Kashmir an uphill task. It is about what we tell the people about fulfilling Mufti sahib’s vision. It is odd that political leaders play this game best in the more sensitive and what they themselves describe as the more volatile states of India, with Jammu and Kashmir standing testimony to this power game since decades.

Mehbooba, who spoke to media for the first time since her father’s death, said “there is nothing like trust deficit (between PDP and BJP)”. In Jammu and Kashmir, there are several forces which need to be tackled. At the time of writing, there was no clarity what that decision would be, but we hope that the State can be spared another election so soon after the last one. For all anyone knows, she might be able to deliver on the common minimum agenda the two parties had adopted before government-formation.

Giving some details about the meeting with Vohra, she said, “the Governor had invited us”.

Apart from lifting AFSPA from certain areas of the Valley, other longstanding demands that the PDP wants the Centre to take up include more facilities for trade across the LoC, resumption of a bus service that had been launched in Mufti’s previous tenure, and an assurance from the top BJP leadership that the BJP or its allies will not raise controversial issues, particularly Article 370. “I have discussed it with the Governor sahab also that this is what our party has to say”.