PDP strikes when poll iron is hot, exits Azad govt over Amarnath

Saying that her party cannot be “insensitive to the situation” and didn’t want “more killings”, Mehbooba clearly positioned her party and turned the controversial forest land transfer issue into a poll plank. She said Union Home Minister Shivraj Patel and National Security Advisor M K Narayanan had called her to try and find a way out. “I told them that we need to look for a way out because we need to stop the bloodshed. But we (PDP) cannot continue to be in the government,” she said.

The survival of Azad’s government is now hinged primarily on whether the opposition National Conference, which has 24 members in the house, extends its support to the government. Although NC president Omar Abdullah has called a party meeting tomorrow, it is highly unlikely that the party will support the Azad government, especially when the PDP has left on the emotive issue of forest land transfer.

The Congress has a total of 29 MLAs, which includes a group of Independents in Jammu. The party needs the support of at least 44 legislators in the 87-member house. The PDP and NC together account for 43 MLAs.

The CPI(M), which is supporting the Azad government from outside, is making the revocation of the land transfer order a pre-condition for its support. The party has two members. “If we support them, they will have to first revoke this order (land transfer),” said CPI (M) general secretary and legislator M Y Tarigami.

The party’s legislator from Tangmarg, Ghulam Hassan Mir, said: “Before I extend my support, they will have to revoke this order”.

The BJP has a single MLA in the house.

Azad, however, will be looking for support from the other Independents in the valley, who are already supporting the government, and the Jammu parties. The Panthers Party, which was initially a part of the coalition, has four members while the BSP has one MLA.