The BJP is all set to form the government in Jharkhand. It is keeping “all its options open” in Jammu and Kashmir where it has emerged as the second largest party after the People’s Democratic Party, with the condition that it should get the Chief Minister or Deputy Chief Minister’s post depending upon who the partner is. Among the front-runners to lead the party in government in J&K is Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Jitendra Singh, MP from Udampur.
“The BJP has emerged as a relevant, democratic force in Jammu and Kashmir,’’ an elated party president Amit Shah, said on Tuesday.
While Mr. Shah said that the party was open to ‘taking support, lending support or participating in government,’ there are indications that the party will be more open to taking support from Omar Abdullah’s National Conference with the condition that the Chief Minister must belong to the BJP. Even so, the party will require Sajjad Lone’s two seats and support of the three independents to reach the half-way mark of 44.
The party may not be averse to doing business with the PDP, but will not go along with it if the former insists on the top job for its candidate, which is likely. In the event of the BJP lending support to the PDP it will seek the Deputy Chief Minister’s post, sources said. On its part the PDP has declared that it was in no hurry to stake a claim for government formation.
Although Mr. Shah gave the signal that its party was on its way to forming the government in J&K there is a view among senior leaders that the party should sit in the opposition. The BJP’s Parliamentary Board is meeting here on Wednesday to take a view.
Asked whether the party will let go of its position on Article 370 if it forms a government in alliance, Mr. Shah said, “we will talk to them.’’ On the issue of conversion, he said the party did not start any debate on it.
Mr. Shah credited his party’s performance to people’s faith in the party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi who addressed nine meetings in the State. He stressed that the party has been on a winning spree ever since it won the Lok Sabha elections in May and formed a BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre. Clearly the party’s electoral performances even without its alliance partners, the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and the Haryana Janhit Party (BL) in Haryana, and now in Jharkhand and Kashmir has boosted the morale of the party and tightened Mr. Shah’s grip on it.
