PDP leadership under pressure as talks with BJP on J&K govt formation fail

For the PDP leadership, Madhav’s statement has come as a shock. The PDP leaders were expecting a breakthrough especially after Mehbooba Mufti had a meeting with the BJP president. For many days now, a senior PDP leader and former minister was busy in parleys with BJP leaders on Mehbooba ‘ s demands. The main demand related to the transfer of power projects was not agreed to by the union government. The PDP president had raised bar on her demands after the death of her father and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

Mehbooba’s reluctancet to go ahead with government formatiom also made the BJP leadership. Though the BJP is now playing hard ball for the PDP president taking over as chief minister without fresh CBMs by the Centre could force her to play second fiddle to the BJP which she does not.

She would rather prefer to go for fresh elections rather than form the government without any CBMs as she is aware of the hardships that Mufti Mohammed Sayeed faced after entering into a coalition with the BJP.

Though the PDP has an option to form the government with the help of the Congress and some independent legislators, party leaders feel that the Centre will use every opportunity to undermine that government and could even try to break the PDP. The only silver lining for the PDP is that the Centre has not yet taken that route or explored it’s options.

The PDP leadership is also under pressure as the Governor has started taking political decisions that could hurt the party in the long run. The vacation of land the PDP had sold as a major confidence building measure has been taken away by the Governor. The Army on Thursday in a meeting with Governor N N Vohra has agreed to free over 600 acres of land under its occupation in Jammu, Srinagar and Kargil.