PDP President Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday ruled out any possibility of a tie-up with the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir while asserting that government formation after the assembly polls would not be possible without the inclusion of her party.
Criticizing the National Conference (NC), she claimed the party seeks to contest elections solely for the purpose of forming a government. “They have been doing so since 1947. They do not have any aim other than that. They form alliances just for the sake of government formation, for ministerial berths,” she said, addressing workers at the party headquarters.
Mufti emphasized that the PDP wants to contest elections with a clear agenda but insisted that no government could be formed after the assembly polls without the participation of the PDP. “We formed a government with only 16 MLAs in 2002. God willing, this time too, no government will be formed without the PDP,” she added.
However, she clarified that the PDP’s focus is more on implementing its agenda than on forming a government. Mufti, whose party had formed a coalition government with the BJP in 2015, ruled out any future alliance with the saffron party after the polls. The PDP had previously joined hands with the BJP with the goal of resolving the Kashmir issue. Today, however, she noted, there seems to be no scope for that, as the BJP has undone all efforts in that direction.
Responding to a question about former NC leader Devender Singh Rana’s remarks that the NC wanted to form a government with the BJP in 2014, Mufti stated that whatever her party has done, it has done openly, unlike the NC, which she accused of acting in secrecy. “When we were having talks with the Central government, not the BJP, through Ram Madhav, everyone knew it was done in the open. We brought an agenda and implemented it. We did not do it secretly like Omar [Abdullah],” she said.
“Rana is saying it now; Ghulam Nabi Azad said before that they [NC leaders] meet with the BJP in Delhi under the cover of darkness. We do not do anything secretly,” she emphasized. “Our party does not have any contact with the BJP, and perhaps there will not be any.”
When asked about Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s visit to J&K on Wednesday, Mufti said he is most welcome. “He wants to come to Kashmir to campaign for his party, and he has every right to do so,” she said.