BJP’s aggressive tie-up bid unnerves MLAs of NC, PDP

He is not the only one. NC leader Mohammad Shafi is also against the idea. Elected from Uri, Shafi is in favour of an alliance instead with the PDP to “safeguard” the interests of the state.

“How can you ask me this question,” Shafi said when he was asked whether he would go with the BJP. “This question in itself is an insult to me. Everybody knows who I am and what I stand for.”

He claimed the BJP has a Hindutva agenda. “They don’t just want the integration of Jammu and Kashmir but also its assimilation. This may not be written but this is what they are doing. Look at the forcible conversions,” he said.

Shafi said the best possible coalition in the “interest of the state” would be an NC-PDP government. “This is the only possible alliance that would be acceptable to the people here. Ideologically, only we can meet. PDP in its election campaign said only they have the capacity to stop the BJP onslaught. They used the word onslaught. Now they should come forward,” he said.

Many in the PDP too are opposed to an alliance with the BJP. Legislators have switched off phones to avoid the media but are speaking out at party meetings. “One of them has threatened to leave the party if it joins hands with the BJP,” a PDP source said.