Mehbooba Mufti meets Modi to end impasse over J&K govt formation

Srinagar: Fresh hope for the Peoples’ Democratic Party cementing its rapprochement with the BJP emerged as PDP president Mehbooba Mufti flew to New Delhi Monday. She met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to resume talks to break the deadlock over government formation in Kashmir.

Read: Mehbooba Mufti has to make up her mind: Arun Jaitley on J and K stalemate

The talks between the alliance partners reached a dead end last week when Ms Mufti’s half-hour meeting with BJP president Amit Shah ended in a fiasco, as both sides failed to find a common ground on various issues. The PDP earlier demanded that J&K-specific “confidence building measures” be initiated by the Centre to create a congenial atmosphere for government formation.

Mr Shah told the PDP chief a government can’t be formed on the basis of conditions. After that, both sides admitted that efforts to revive the coalition had hit a roadblock.

Read: Mehbooba Mufti says not afraid of criticism for going ahead with BJP

PDP and BJP sources said that despite the bitterness over the failed meeting between Mr Shah and Ms Mufti, lines of communication remained open between the two sides.

A series of meetings that PDP vice-president Muzaffar Hussain Baig had with BJP leaders in New Delhi in the past three days paved the way for a broader reconciliation meeting between Ms Mufti and Mr Shah, that is likely to take place in the next few days. If the proposed meeting makes headway, the PDP leader may be invited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a one-on-one meeting as an affirmation of mutual understanding, the sources said.

Read: Ready to form govt if people are made stakeholders in peace process: Mufti

The process of reconciliation was rejuvenated also by a statement by finance minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday that the BJP was fully committed to the “Agenda of the Alliance” in J&K. He told reporters in New Delhi: “We stand fully committed as far as the agenda of governance is concerned.”

A senior PDP leader was, however, not very hopeful of a “back to the future” breakthrough. “It all depends on what is offered. She would agree to shoulder responsibility only if her concerns are satisfactorily addressed,” he said.

Former chief minister Omar Abdullah said Monday that his National Conference was not in favour of mid-term polls in the state. “We are ready to sit in Opposition if the PDP-BJP combine is ready to form the government,” he told reporters after meeting governor N.N. Vohra at Raj Bhavan in Jammu. He said the people of the state had voted with faith for good governance in the November-December 2014 elections.

Read: BJP reaches out to Mehbooba Mufti ahead of her meet with J and K governor

But the NC working president also said: “If the PDP-BJP are not ready for government formation, then instead of looking for fractured dispensation, only polls is the option left.” Taking a jibe on Ms Mufti, he said if she can’t take a decision on government, then how will she be able to do justice in future if she becomes chief minister. “She can’t hang on the entire state for her self-interest,” Mr Abdullah said, adding that government formation should take place at the earliest in the best interests of the state.

Earlier Mr Abdullah tweeted: “God help J-K if Mehbooba as CM is going to be as indecisive as she has been as party president over the last 2 (and) 1/2 months.”

Mr Abdullah termed his meeting with the governor as a routine matter. But reports said that Mr Abdullah had met the governor also to urge him to discourage attempts if made by any party to subvert the state’s constitution and anti-defection law in the course of government formation. He told the governor the NC would prefer mid-term polls over “horse trading”.

Asked about the fears of horse trading, Mr Abdullah said the NC believed in ethics in politics. “We have never encouraged such unethical acts. In fact, our party has been backstabbed in 1984 by engineering horse trading that witnessed the unseating of a democratically elected government.” he said.