Samaan Lateef
SRINAGAR : The continuing delay in government formation in Jammu and Kashmir has put the PDP in jeopardy while as the BJP at national level is looking to take some political mileage out of the delay in upcoming five State elections.
With the demise of Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed earlier this month the State cabinet of the PDP-BJP coalition has been dissolved. Mufti’s demise brought to fore the deep fissures existing between the two coalition partners.
The PDP leadership realises that party’s popularity graph has gone down in Kashmir Valley after it stitched an alliance with the BJP in March 2015.
From the call for abrogation of Article 370, which provides special constitutional status to J&K within Union of India, to failure of centre government to
rehabilitate flood victims,
the PDP has found itself at the receiving end in Kashmir valley.
The PDP publicly criticized its coalition partner, BJP for not following the “Agenda of Alliance”-a document signed by the two parties in March, 2015, as a guiding principle for governance in the State.
With the briefing of the party, the senior PDP leader and former Education Minister Naeem Akhter told reporters on Saturday that most of the promises by the BJP in Agenda of Alliance remained unfulfilled and that his party plans to reconsider the alliance.
The PDP’s tough posturing on issues like rehabilitation of flood victims, Article 370, return of power projects from National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) and vacating Army from private properties of the State mentioned in the “Agenda of Alliance” was to gain political mileage before entering into fresh coalition with the BJP. However, with no word of assurance from the BJP’s national leadership, the desperation for power in the PDP camp is growing.
Sources in PDP said they want a “dignified exit” from the present stalemate with the BJP. “We can’t escape from the alliance with the BJP which will otherwise prove Mufti sahib wrong,” said a senior PDP leader.
He said Mehbooba wants assurance from Prime Minister, Narendra Modi or BJP president, Amit Shah that the BJP would adhere to the Agenda of Alliance. “We will go ahead with the alliance if we get an assurance from the PMO that the BJP will adhere to the ‘Agenda of Alliance’,” he said.
Political experts said the PDP leadership without understanding the fractured mandate thrown by the last year Assembly elections raised the bar by seeking reassurance from the BJP on certain promises made in the document of “Agenda of Alliance”.
The national leadership of BJP, he said, was looking for gains in upcoming Assembly elections in Pondicherry, Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala
