Mehbooba hosts dinner to legislators

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 31

Amid reports that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are inching towards the formation of a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti hosted a dinner for party MLAs tonight to apprise them of the latest developments in this regard.

The PDP president informed her party legislators about the issues which would be incorporated in the common minimum programme to run the coalition government with the BJP.

Tonight’s meeting was important because this dinner was held in the absence of party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who had gone to Mumbai on a private tour.

A legislator who attended in the dinner said on the condition of anonymity that the party president had made it clear that the PDP would form the government with the BJP without compromising on its core issues.

“The party president informed legislators about the issues which would be incorporated in the common minimum programme,” the legislator said, adding that some MLAs aired their apprehensions which were cleared by the party president.

On January 24, PDP patron Sayeed first admitted that talks with the BJP on government formation in the state were in progress.

He had announced that talks would be followed by a structured dialogue between both parties to evolve a consensus on contentious issues to formulate the common minimum programme.

Sources said Mehbooba and party legislators discussed the forthcoming Rajya Sabha elections. A strategy was devised to ensure the victory both PDP candidates in the elections.

It was the positive outcome of talks between the parties that the PDP and the BJP had decided to contest two Rajya Sabha seats each for which polling would be held on February 7.

In the 87-member Assembly, the PDP has 28 members, followed by the BJP (25), the National Conference (15) and the Congress (12). There are seven other members, including small parties and an Independent.

The BJP is facing intense pressure from various social organisations against abandoning core issues like citizenship rights to west Pakistan refugees and constitution of a delimitation commission to end political discrimination against the Jammu region.

Some social and religious groups have warned the BJP against compromising on these major issues for the sake of power.