Ramesh Pandita
Both, in absence of numbers and the support from any other major political party BJP unlike the PDP had a limited choice of forming the government, as such let the PDP to pave way for them. BJP was voted for the promises made by the party that it will do away with the Article 370, the bottleneck between the Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country. The BJP compromised with its pre-poll promise by sidling the Article 370 and on other similar issues while framing the agenda of the alliance. The BJP is working hard to regain the ground they have lost after entering into the agenda of the alliance with the PDP and the PDP on the other hand lost the sympathy of its stronghold electorate, which voted the party for its secessionist ideology, which the party compromised with, by forming the alliance with so called untouchables.
The accord of alliance between the BJP and the PDP remained inclined towards the lateral during the first year of their rule. Now again, what remains to be seen is, how BJP is going to exploit this opportunity in the second innings of their rule with their ruling partner, which is more committed to the Kashmir centric development and is trying to seek more sops for the valley people from their alliance partner. PDP hasn’t just managed to bag all the important portfolios, but also the Chief Minister from their party for a full six year term. It would be quite interesting to see the new Agenda of the Alliance, which wasted the time of the State electorate for over almost three months. One just hopes the maelstrom done over the agenda of alliance by the PDP will have something significant and substantial to offer to the people of the state and won’t be more about protecting the personal and party level interests and issues. It would be equally interesting to see, how far BJP will bend its back to accommodate the interests of its alliance partner during the remaining period of their ruling term.
Mufti Mohammed Sayeed with his out of box decision, to form an alliance with the BJP has set the tone for the future politics and also opened up new political opportunities in the state polity. As is said, in politics, nobody is untouchable, so did he proved the magnetism right by showing that how actually unlike poles attract towards each other and can form the best bond, but Mr Sayeed couldn’t change the hearts of his own party colleagues towards the party, which they still consider as untouchable, no doubt for compulsive reasons. But the hard fact remains that politics is not only about fulfilling the political ambitions, but also the personal ambitions and to fulfill the lateral, it would have been quite unfair to expect from the elected representatives to not to embrace the untouchables.
Both, the PDP and the BJP by no means can afford to waste the remaining period of their ruling term, as this perhaps is the only opportunity left with both the parties to regain some ground in their respective strongholds and also an obligation on both the parties to give something to their voters to cheer about. It would be appropriate for Mehbooba Mufti to exploit the remaining period of the ruling term with their coalition partner in its entirety, a chance to provide good and effective governance. The word of caution for the PDP is, the agenda of inconvenient alliance is already inclined towards them, be it in the form of Chief Ministership for a full six year term or the major chunk of heavy portfolios, which the party managed to bag and there on, any incompatibility in future reflected by the alliance partners is going to hurt PDP the most. PDP not only has to avail the opportunity provided to its optimum, but also has make the agenda of inconvenient alliance convenient to the mass of State, else the party is bound to face the doomsday that too when the old political war horses like the INC and the NC are around, which are better-off in making a yard out of an inch. (Concluded)