Srinagar: The core group of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is scheduled to meet here on Sunday to discuss a slew of issues including government formation.
Party sources said that though its president Mehbooba Mufti has already been authorised by the party to take the final call on the crucial question of continuing with its alliance with the BJP or call it off, she decided to discuss the issue threadbare with her senior party colleagues.
The meeting of the PDP’s extended core group will be held under her chairmanship at 2 pm at her residence ‘Fairview’ here and is expected to be attended by all members including two party general secretaries and MPs and former ministers besides political advisor to the party president Peerzada Mansoor.
It will be her first formal meeting with senior party colleagues to discuss the situation arising out of the death of her father and former chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, the sources said. When asked if the government formation is on the agenda of the meeting, a senior party leader said, “There’s nothing in writing there but obviously being the main issue faced by the party today it will come up for discussion.”
Another senior PDP leader and chief spokesman Dr. Mehboob Beg said, “Frankly speaking, I don’t know what is on the agenda. I’ve been invited and I will be attending the meeting which will be first formal discourse after Mufti Sahib has left us.”
PDP cobbled together a coalition government with ideologically divergent BJP in March 2015 at the head of its patron Mr. Sayeed. But after the chief minister’s death in a Delhi hospital on January 7, the PDP has yet to decide whether to form a new government with the BJP or end its alliance with the saffron party and look for alternatives.
With the alliance partners failing to formally intimate Governor N.N.Vohra regarding government formation in the wake of the death of the chief minister, the state came under Governor’s rule on January 9.
Kashmir watchers said the PDP is unlikely to come up with its decision on government formation after Sunday’s meeting. The discussions within the PDP may continue for few more days as there is a strong line of thinking in the party that the alliance with BJP has only proved detrimental to its interests and halted its growth, particularly in Kashmir Valley”.
Before taking the final decision on its future course of action, the party president Ms. Mufti may wish to formally consult its’ all lawmakers and other key players.
A senior party leader and former education minister Naeem Akhtar had earlier this week complained that ‘Agenda of the Alliance’, the common minimum programme reached with BJP for the government formation last year, has not made a real headway. “We will review how much the PDP has achieved vis-à-vis fulfilling ‘development vision’ of our patron and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed,” he said adding “Mufti Sahib had a vision for making Jammu and Kashmir a modern state-the paradise of peace”.
He also said that the PDP will assess whether Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has taken any decisions on it. “Our governance agenda included making smart cities, bringing the power projects presently under NHPC (National Hydel Power Corporation) back and see earliest completion of other development projects so that Mufti Sahib’s dream of making Jammu and Kashmir the fastest-growing state in the entire country is realised. We will analyse how much that has been achieved and whether we can work smoothly on the governance agenda in future,” he had said.
Reacting to Mr. Akhtar’s statement, the BJP has said that the PDP never raised any such apprehension while being in government for more than 10 months. BJP state president Sat Sharma told local news agency KNS on Saturday that the State was witnessing development on all fronts and that Mr. Akhtar’s assertions could be his personal view which may not necessarily reflect the PDP’s stand. “There were two contradictory statements which Mr. Akhtar issued in the past three days. We take it as his personal opinion and not the stand of the PDP. We are yet to meet and unless officially both the parties sit together and finalize the future strategy it would be futile to draw conclusions out of the mere statements of some person,” Mr. Sharma said.
