Asked which of the two parties would BJP prefer to ally with, Ram Madhav said it was not about the party but a choice of providing a stable and credible government.As J&K Governor N N Vohra sent separate letters Friday to the PDP and BJP, the largest and second largest parties in the hung House, for “discussions on the proposal for government formation”, the goal post for an alliance with the BJP appeared to have shifted within the PDP — from a debate on an alliance with the BJP to the terms of reference for such an alliance.
PDP patriarch Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is not revealing his cards but party leader and former deputy chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Beig has held talks with Ram Madhav of the BJP in Srinagar. Though PDP leaders claim that Beig, who is publicly backing a PDP-BJP alliance, doesn’t have Mufti’s nod to negotiate an alliance, it is clear that the official silence of the party provides it the protection of deniability in case alliance talks fail.
In three days since the fractured verdict — the PDP has 28 seats, the BJP 25 in a House of 87 — the debate within the PDP centred on whether or not to ally with the BJP. There was serious disagreement within the party on the issue.
While Beig was in favour of this alliance and went public with his views, there was opposition from others who feared the adverse political fallout of any such move. But by Friday, there seemed to be a shift in the PDP stance. Leaders who were opposed to the idea of an alliance began talking about the terms of reference for such an arrangement.
“For us, it (joining hands with BJP) is like going to the gallows with the hope we will survive in political terms,’’ a senior PDP leader close to Mufti told The Indian Express. “But it could also be a historic opportunity if the BJP agrees to a new beginning in J&K. If they agree to our terms, it will change the situation. It can be a Vajpayee moment for Modi.” The leader said the PDP received a “type of a mandate where there is hardly any scope to manoeuvre”.
“People didn’t give us a mandate which would have ensured that we form a government on our own. This has put us in a difficult situation,” the leader said. “Now we can only place sand bags to stop the flood. We can’t prevent the flood.”
The option to go with Congress or NC, the leader said, was still open but the problem was that such an arrangement would leave out Jammu, especially its Hindu population represented by the BJP, from government. The leader cited a past example to make the point that it is difficult to run a government if Jammu isn’t on board. “Between 1978 and 1980, there was such an agitation in Jammu that the continued…
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