Governor gives ultimatum to PDP-BJP on govt formation

Srinagar: Amid deepening crisis and their 10-month old alliance virtually coming to the edge, PDP and BJP leaders closeted with their respective lawmakers and other key functionaries separately in Jammu and Kashmir’s twin capitals on Monday to decide future courses of action.

The meetings were also prompted by Governor, N. N. Vohra’s, asking PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and her counterpart in the State unit of the BJP Sat Pal Sharma to clarify by Tuesday evening whether they will form government in the state again or not. Both Ms. Mufti and Mr. Sharma are scheduled to meet the Governor separately at Raj Bhavan in winter capital Jammu on Tuesday afternoon.  

Most constitutional and legal experts say that if the PDP-BJP combine conveys to the Governor about their failure to form the new government and he is satisfied that none of the other political parties are in a position to fill the vacuum by providing Jammu and Kashmir a stable government he may recommend dissolution of the State Assembly and holding of fresh elections.

He wants unambiguous answers from PDP as well as BJP also because he has to appoint advisors which he has not done so far in the belief that the Governor’s rule imposed in the State on January 8 following the demise of Chief Minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, and consequent failure of the PDP-BJP combine to form the new government would be a brief affair. In the event of the alliance partners’ asking for more time for government formation, the Governor would go ahead with appointing advisors and may also order some changes in bureaucratic structure towards smooth working of the administration under him.

The PDP emerged as the largest party in the November-December 2014 elections to the 87-member Assembly after winning 28 seats. It cobbled up a coalition with ideologically-divergent BJP, which has 25 seats, in March last year to form a government in the State. Owing to the demise of its patron and Chief Minister, Mr. Sayeed, in a Delhi hospital on January 7, the PDP’s tally has come down to 27. Mr. Sayeed represented southern Anantnag constituency. Two other major parties National Conference (NC) and Congress have 15 and 12 members, respectively. The remaining seats went to smaller parties or independents.

Soon after the core group of BJP including MLAs met in Jammu on Monday, a 4-member delegation led by Mr. Sharma rushed to Delhi to meet the party high command to explain ground realities in the State. The meeting was held in the house of party general secretary Ashok Koul in Jammu’s Gandhi Nagar area in the backdrop of the Governor’s virtually serving ultimatum on the government formation and PDP president, Ms. Mufti’s, categorically stating that it would form the new government with its alliance partner only if and when the latter assures it that her father and former Chief Minister, Mr. Sayeed’s, ‘vision’ would be fulfilled.

However, J&K BJP chief Mr. Sharma said that the PDP has not sent it any pre conditions for government formation. He also said that his party is not only committed to implement ‘Agenda of the Alliance’, the common-minimum programme reached between the two sides for government formation last year, “but can also think and work beyond it.”  BJP’s in-charge for J&K, Avinash Rai Khanna reiterated that the PDP has to first elect its legislature party leader and show its cards.

A report from Delhi said that the BJP delegation comprising Mr. Sharma and three other senior leaders- former deputy chief minister Dr. Nirmal Singh, MP Jugal Kishore and Shamsheer Singh Manhas- are likely to meet party president Amit Shah and national general secretary Ram Madhav who played a major role in forging his party’s alliance with the PDP. 

The PDP’s legislature party met here to discuss the issue and decided that Ms. Mufti will fly to Jammu on Tuesday morning to meet the Governor in the afternoon to explain her party’s view point before him. “This was our first formal meeting which authorized Mehboobaji to place party’s point of view before the Governor, which she is doing tomorrow,” senior party leader and former education minister, Naeem Akhtar, told Deccan Chronicle. Earlier reports had said that the meet has been called also to formally elect Ms. Mufti as its legislature party leader. “That didn’t happen but as said she was authorised to convey to the Governor the party’s point of view,” he said.

PDP has already authorised Ms. Mufti to take the final call on the government formation. Mr. Akhtar also said, “We’ve not asked for anything new. There are no preconditions as such. All we want is; honest and faithful implementation of ‘Agenda of the Alliance’”. Asked about Mr. Khanna’s statement that the PDP should first elect its legislature party leader to show its cards, Mr. Akhtar said, “That is their position.”  

 

 

 

Both PDP and BJP received fax communications from the Governor on Sunday evening for holding consultations with their leaders on the government formation. Mr. Sharma said that a delegation of the BJP will also call on Mr. Vohra on Tuesday and “explain our position in the backdrop of the meeting we had had in Jammu today and our consultations with the party high command in Delhi.”  

 

Ms. Mufti had on Sunday while presiding over a meeting of its extended core group said the party will take a call on government formation as and when it is confident that the “vision and mission” of its patron and former Chief Minister Mr. Sayeed will be carried forward and implemented in letter and spirit.

 

“Mufti Sahib took a courageous, although unpopular, decision of aligning with BJP with the hope that the Central government headed by Mr Narendra Modi will take decisive measures to address the core political and economic issues concerning Jammu and Kashmir and its people,” she said adding that “Unfortunately, instead of partnering with and implementing Mr. Sayeed’s vision of bringing peace, stability and prosperity to Jammu and Kashmir, certain quarters, both within J&K and in New Delhi, started overtly and covertly triggering frequent controversies over avoidable contentious issues resulting in wastage of the State government’s energies in fire fighting and propitiation”.

She also said that she was not disinclined to form the government but would not do it unless she receives these assurances from the alliance partner. “I will not burn my fingers for nothing. PDP will not form government just for the sake of power but, if it does, it will be, as envisioned by Mufti Sahib, with the objective of addressing the core political and economic issues confronting J&K as was done by the PDP-led government between 2002 and 2005,” she said.

The PDP has been maintaining that the Agenda of Alliance is a “sacred document” and wants its implementation on ground in letter and spirit to ensure the State’s inclusive development. Ms. Mufti told Sunday’s meeting that Mr. Sayeed died a sad man as “non-fulfilment” of the promises made to the people in past ten months taxed him heavily.”   

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister and working president of opposition NC, Omar Abdullah, said on Monday that the PDP and BJP cannot turn Jammu and Kashmir into a play ground and appreciated the Governor’s move asking the alliance partners to clear stand on government formation. "Good. The state can't be treated like a play ground by these two parties," he wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter.com.