Mehbooba Mufti to be first J&K woman CM

JAMMU: The BJP Legislature Party on Friday unanimously decided to form government in Jammu and Kashmir with coalition partner PDP and extended support to PDP’s chief ministerial candidate Mehbooba Mufti.

It also elected senior leader and former deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh as the legislature party leader who will also be the BJP candidate for the post of deputy chief minister.

“BJPLP has decided to support PDP in the formation of the government in the state and BJP and PDP together will approach the Governor and stake claim for formation of the government very soon,” BJP National General Secretary Ram Madhav told reporters here after the meeting.

“As we have decided to form the government with PDP, we will support the chief ministerial candidate of PDP,” J-K BJP President Sat Sharma said. The meeting came a day after PDP elected Mehbooba as its legislature party leader and the party candidate for the chief minister’s post.

BJP, PDP squabble over portfolios
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister-designate and regional Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti’s meeting with Governor N.N. Vohra scheduled for Friday afternoon to stake claim to form the government with BJP was deferred at the last moment as discussions between the alliance partners over allotment of portfolios remained inconclusive.

Sources in the two parties said that consensus over the allotment of some crucial portfolios such as home, finance and planning is evading the PDP-BJP combine.

The BJP, the sources said, wants the home portfolio which traditionally remains with Chief Minister.

It also reportedly wants to wrest finance or planning department which was with the PDP in previous coalition government headed by Mufti Muhammad Sayeed.  However, both sides chose to remain officially silent on the reasons behind their seeking postponement of meetings with the Governor.

A Raj Bhavan spokesman in Jammu said both PDP and BJP have asked for more time as their discussions were still continuing. Ms. Mufti was scheduled to meet the Governor at 3.30 pm to stake claim to form the government. This would have been followed by a separate meeting Mr. Vohra had sought with the State BJP unit president Satpal Sharma.

“Raj Bhavan was approached by PDP today (Friday) afternoon to ascertain whether the PDP and BJP leaders could meet the Governor together today evening. This was agreed to,” the spokesman said. However, the PDP and BJP leaders later informed Governor’s office that talks between the two sides were still going on and that “they would make a fresh request for meeting the Governor when they had concluded their discussions”.