Jammu/Srinagar: Amid continuing suspense over formation of new government in Jammu and Kashmir, Governor N.N Vohra on Friday invited PDP and BJP, the first and second largest parties in the elections, which threw up a highly-fractured verdict with no clear winner.
Vohra has invited separately PDP Patron Mufti Mohd Sayeed and State BJP Chief Jugal Kishore “for holding discussions on the proposal for government formation,” a Raj Bhavan official said.
BJP, which ended up with a tally of 25 in the 87-strong Assembly, and PDP, which secured 28 seats, have held discussions in the last two days to explore the possibility of coming together. There was no indication as to how the discussions have gone.
Parallelly, two other key players, the National Conference (NC) which got 15 seats and the Congress (12 seats), continued to make efforts to keep BJP out of power by offering support to PDP, whose response remained a matter of speculation.
NC Working President and the outgoing Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who has already declared that there is no deal between his party and the BJP, tweeted tonight that only “a verbal offer of support” has been conveyed to the PDP. But it looks like “PDP is playing mind games with the BJP leaking about a letter of NC support that doesn’t exist”.
As speculation continued over PDP either tying up with BJP or aligning with Congress with outside support of NC, PDP sources said the party was not ready for rotational Chief Ministership with BJP.
Another PDP leader said with the support of Congress and some Independents, the party will be in a position to reach the halfway mark of 44.
For the record, BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav said his party was holding consultations with all important stakeholders in for providing a stable government.
Madhav, however, skirted a question on which of the two parties would BJP prefer to ally with, saying it was not about the party but a choice of providing a stable and credible government. (PTI)
