STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) on Friday said a near total consensus has emerged between the alliance partners PDP and BJP to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir. However, the suspense over the final date of swearing-in ceremony is continuing.
“We are ready to form the government from our side whenever the PDP leadership decides to move ahead,” BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav told reporters after chairing a meeting of the party leaders at the residence of former Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh. On the question of delay caused in arriving at a decision, Madhav told reporters, “we have extended support to the PDP leadership ‘in principle’ to form the government and we have conveyed to the Governor N N Vohra that since the first meeting took place at a short notice the leadership of both the parties needed to carry out more discussions to work out the basic modalities of formation of the government”.
“For the past three-four days we held series of meetings and yesterday Dr Nirmal Singh and PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti held detailed discussions and everything became clear,” Madhav said.
He said now both the parties are ready to go together and form the government as soon as possible.
Refusing to spell out the contours of the cabinet composition and whether the differences over distribution of portfolio allocation had been sorted out with the PDP leadership, Ram Madhav said everything will be clear to you once the process of government formation will be over.
When quizzed over the final date of swearing-in, he quipped, “PDP leadership will tell you”.
Despite public posturing on bonhomie between the two parties, all does not appear to be well within the PDP and BJP.
He said, “Though we are also being kept in the loop but PDP leadership is actually in touch with the Governor and the final date of swearing-in will be decided by them”.
“Our agenda is to give clean government, good governance and development oriented government and it is the common objective of both the parties for which we came together.
Those who attended the meeting include Avinash Rai Khanna, Sai Kiran, Dr Nirmal Singh, Sat Sharma, MP Jugal Kihore Sharma and others. Ram Madhav arrived Jammu on chartered plane and returned to Delhi late in the evening.
Soon after the media interaction of Ram Madhav, a vocal BJP MLA told STATE TIMES that the party’s stand on the issue of two ministries will not be compromises; come what may. He said the BJP will never allow the PDP’s blackmailing tactics to succeed.
