STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Peoples Democratic Party, which trounced its arch rival and main competitor National Conference in the crucial 2014 elections and formed coalition government with Bharatiya Janata Party in March 2015 on false assurances, seems to have lost its existence and political turf in the Kashmir Valley.
Taking advantage of the devastated condition of his party’s bête noire, the seasoned politician Dr Farooq Abdullah on Saturday laid a trap by announcing that National Conference was ready to form the government with BJP. Intriguingly, the NC had offered unconditional support to PDP last March in order to keep the BJP out of power by dubbing it a fascist and communal outfit.
Now that Dr Abdullah has expressed his willingness to form government with the BJP, the political analysts term it a shrewd move to instigate the PDP for expediting its power sharing arrangement with the saffron party by renewing alliance, which was reached between BJP high command and Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. The departed Chief Minister was actually assured by the BJP top brass that contentious issues like Article 370, Rehabilitation of West Pak refugees, cluster housing colonies for the Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley, among other things wouldn’t be racked up and the state will be given liberal funding besides return of power project and repealing of Armed Forces Special Powers Act on a time bound basis.
Knowing well that by aligning with BJP the NC cannot muster the magic figure of 44, senior Abdullah is actually trying to offer a honey trap to PDP so that by forming the government with BJP, the most hated political outfit in the Valley, PDP is further destroyed and annihilated from political landscape of Kashmir.
Dr Farooq Abdullah knows the extent of damage caused to PDP during the past over ten months by aligning with BJP and now his objective seems to be just to create confusion and to push PDP to the wall so that it is razed to ground for all times to come.
“Time alone will prove whether Farooq Abdullah succeeds in outwitting equally shrewd Mehbooba Mufti by leading her party to align with BJP again”, observed a political analyst.
Earlier in the day, Farooq Abdullah told reporters that his party is ready to consider a tie-up with the saffron party for government formation if such an offer is received.
“If such a proposal comes, then NC will call a Working Committee (meeting) and debate over it. If such a situation arises, NC can think over it as we have not closed the doors.
Our doors are open,” he told media when asked to spell out his party’s stand if it gets a proposal from BJP for forming a coalition government in the state which is under Governor’s rule.
In the 87-member Assembly, BJP has 25 MLAs while NC has 14 legislators.
His comments came as uncertainty prevailed over the fate of PDP-BJP coalition which ran government headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed for 10 months before his sudden death on January 7.
With regard to the ongoing political uncertainty in the state, the NC patron and former Chief Minister blamed 27-member PDP for it.
“Uncertianity has been created by PDP as BJP is ready to form the government and God knows what PDP is thinking, I hope they end this and the government would continue,” he said.
Abdullah, whose party had earlier been a part of NDA, said NC never shies away from playing its role.
“NC never shies away from its role. In 1996 when nobody was ready for election, we came forward,” the former Chief Minister said.
“I again say that uncertainty is not good for the state and the situation would benefit our enemies,” he said.
Abdullah said it was Sayeed who had forged the alliance between the two parties and it was the responsibility of his daughter and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti to take their friendship ahead.
“But we have to first see that the friendship that existed should move forward. What is the benefit of such a friendship,” the NC patron said.
He said PDP and BJP should form the government at the earliest to end the political uncertainty in the state.
“They (PDP and BJP) should reduce their differences and take the state out of uncertainty,” he said while talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function in Katra town of Reasi district.
“I think, they should quickly form a government because the state cannot afford instability,” Abdullah told reporters on the sidelines of a book release function in Jammu in the evening.
He said the coalition partner PDP and BJP must take the decision at an earliest as the people of the state should not be left to suffer.
“Whatever they (PDP and BJP) do, they must do it now and must not wait. I think that is more important now it is the people that matter and people want solutions to their problems and that is what they (both the parties) should focus,” he said.
