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PDP open to alliance: Mehbooba

Mehbooba disapproves of “soft separatist tag” for her party

SRINAGAR: The People’s Democratic Party said on Sunday the over 60 per cent voter turnout should not be considered the “end of the road” as Jammu and Kashmir was different from other States and the people had “different aspirations and ambitions.”

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti told reporters that her party was open to an alliance with any party that agreed to have a common minimum programme (CMP) chalked out, as in 2002. Otherwise, it would prefer to sit in the Opposition.

Hailing the 2002 CMP that it had with the Congress, she said: “In 2002, we sat together and we had a CMP, where the healing touch policy became the lead. It was even appreciated by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. We brought about a turn in the whole situation.”

Asked if the Congress would risk a tie-up with the PDP because of its “soft separatist tag,” she said, “I don’t know what they mean by soft separatist approach. If opening of the Muzaffarabad road and asking for trade on the road is soft separatism, I think the Prime Minister is very much party to that.”

Ms. Mehbooba said what was important for her party was “how to deal with the situation in the State, how to address it and what is going to be our policies and programme. Whether the other party agrees to it is going to be the foremost thing.”

Asked if she would get on the bus with the Congress, she said, “They are not in touch with us. We have not decided anything.”

Though she directly refused to talk about the Congress as the PDP’s ally for installing a new government, she said that when the National Conference and the Congress shared power in the 80’s, “they had to rig the elections in ’87 and that is why so many people picked up guns and they got killed.”

She quickly added, “We shared power with the Congress and our coalition was seen [even at the] international level as one of the best coalitions. It brought a total change in the situation.”

Asked about the Congress’s charge that the PDP betrayed it during the Amarnath land row, Ms. Mehbooba said, “We are a people’s party. What we did was that we responded to the aspirations of the people at that point of time. Three people had already been killed and we could not be just bystanders and hence we sacrificed power to see that people get what they wanted at that point of time.”

Pandits draw a blank

A report from Jammu said that for the first time, the Assembly will have no Kashmiri Pandit member as all 47 candidates, including the former Minister, Raman Mattoo, lost the elections.

“It is for the first time in the history of Jammu and Kashmir that not even a single KP candidate could occupy a berth in the Assembly,” All-Party Migrant Coordination committee (APMCC) chairman Vinood Pandit said.

Mr. Mattoo, Industries Minister in the previous Congress-PDP coalition government, lost to Shimeema Firdos of the National Conference in the Habbakadal constituency. — PTI

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