Srinagar: As the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls have thrown up a split mandate, the People’s Democratic Party is facing a major dilemma even though it has emerged as the single largest party in the state, winning 28 out of 87 seats in the Assembly.
It’s major predicament is whether to try and cobble up a coalition government with an ideologically-friendly Congress, that has bagged 12 seats, or go with the BJP in deference to its best-ever electoral performance, winning 25 seats in the state, but all of these in the Jammu region, that is politically and ethnically distant from the Muslim-majority Valley, where the PDP won most of its seats.
Some PDP leaders had all along kept channels open with the BJP, and now feel the PDP should forge an alliance with the saffron party.
A major factor is the state’s demographic profile, and the BJP having improved its tally. A PDP-BJP coalition, they argue, will not only fashion a “fruitful combination” for the cash-starved state, but also check possible regional tensions and the divide between Jammu and the Kashmir Valley.
While the BJP too is so reluctant to join hands with the PDP, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed and his daughter Mehbooba Mufti, the party chief, are not inclined towards a tie-up with the BJP, fearing it would damage its Valley base.
