BJP sources maintained that although the PDP has won three more seats (28), the BJP has got the largest vote share (27 per cent), making it a major stakeholder and a chief minister aspirant. The PDP with 28 MLAs and the BJP with 25 can provide a stable government. In such a scenario, the BJP will insist on rotational chief minister or at least the deputy chief minister’s post.
There has been opposition within the rank and file of the NC and the PDP about allying with the BJP with whom both these parties have ideological differences on abrogation of Article 370 and the Armed Forces (Special Provisions) Act which form the basis of their politics in Jammu and Kashmir.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad floated the idea of a grand alliance between the PDP, the NC and the Congress to form the government, but the PDP has not commented on the proposal.
ADVERTISEMENT
Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Jitendra Singh on Saturday parried questions on government formation.
Mr. Singh, MP from Udhampur in Jammu, is said to be a frontrunner for leading the BJP in the government, if his party comes to share power in J&K.
Asked about the initiatives taken by his party for forging an alliance with any regional party in the State, he said the question was beyond the purview of his Ministry. Asked if he was a chief ministerial aspirant, he said: “It is not my prerogative.”
ADVERTISEMENT
‘Resist BJP move’
M.Y. Tarigami, newly-elected CPI(M) MLA, asked the NC, the PDP, the Congress and independents to “unitedly resist” any move by the BJP to form a government in the State.
“Our apprehensions are real because the past history of the RSS is there. The BJP today is not BJP, it is pure and simple RSS and unlike the BJP of old times,” he said, adding that no party had asked him for support.
(With inputs from PTI)