As suspense over government formation in Jammu and Kashmir continued, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) floating the idea of forming a grand alliance with National Conference and Congress looks as if the whole exercise has come a full circle after working on various combinations and permutations. The idea of such an alliance was mooted by senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad. PDP has emerged as the single largest party with 28 seats in the 87-member Assembly followed closely by BJP with 25 seats while NC bagged 15,whereas Congress won 12 seats, smaller parties and independents got seven seats; the combination looks quite strong. Not only this the emerging combination would also set at rest the speculation of who will lead the government first and would give the majority party undisturbed inning, of six years which is needed for the stability of the State politically. On Saturday, PDP set tough conditions for BJP which is wooing it for the formation of the new government in the State, declaring that its stand against revocation of Art 370 was “non-negotiable”. Even the second largest party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was able to improve its tally from 11 to 25 from 2009 Assembly elections but was not able to reach its magic figure of Mission 44 plus as was being advocated throughout its campaign. It looks as if the emerging three-party combination is to just keep the saffron out of the government formation. So much so the emerging combinations have taken every one on unexpected lines. The grand alliance is something like a friend-foe combination for survival. On the other hand for PDP-Congress this is the second marriage. First one being headed by Ghulam Nabi Azad ended in mid-way divorce. In all this game the Mission 44+ of BJP has remained a very far off dream. Riding on the Amarnath land agitation BJP gained from one seat to eleven immediately after the agitation in 2008 and in 2014 it consolidated to emerge as the second biggest party in the State leaving traditional parties like National Conference and Congress way behind. Now, the government formation in Jammu and Kashmir has completed full circle with no further combination left.
