Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and senior BJP leader Ram Madhav held meetings with the party’s newly elected legislators in Jammu on Thursday and announced that the central leadership of the BJP will decide on issues related to government formation in the State.
“The people’s mandate shows that the BJP must be a part of the government," Mr. Jaitley said at a press conference on Thursday. He said the party MLAs have authorised BJP president Amit Shah to decide the future course of action on government formation.
“All options are open for us. The newly elected MLAs of the party have decided that they will go with the decision of the party president Amit Shah,” he said adding that the party is in talks with “unattached” legislators.
With 25 seats in its kitty, the BJP has emerged as a strong force in the J&K electoral scene and has almost managed to dislodge the Congress from its usual “kingmaker” position. It is the strongest that the BJP has ever been in the State, sweeping 25 of the 37 seats in the Jammu region. It has, however, not been able to win even a single seat in the Kashmir region.
Mr. Jaitley and Mr. Madhav also visited Kashmir later in the afternoon. According to sources, Mr. Jaitley returned to Delhi from Srinagar airport only. Mr. Madhav is in Srinagar where he is supposed to meet with the “stakeholders” in government formation from the Kashmir region beside its own party members.
