Amid the uncertainties over Jammu and Kashmir’s political future, National Conference legislators are coming out in the open against talks of any alliance with the BJP.
“I am answerable to my conscience. I cannot say ‘no’ to something before elections and ‘yes’ to the same thing later. There is no chance at all that I will be a part of any alliance with the BJP,” said Syed Agha Ruhullah, an NC legislator and a Shia leader in Budgam.
Outgoing Chief Minister and NC leader Omar Abdullah has maintained that he is not completely closed to an alliance with the BJP or even with arch-rival PDP. He refused to rule out anything, saying it was not his job to make the lives of others easier. But with his own legislators clearly saying that they would never be a part of any alliance with the BJP, a deflated NC, which gave its worst-ever election performance this time, could be looking at the beginning of a rift within the party.
One of NC’s veteran leaders and a successful candidate from Uri, Mohammad Shafi, said on Thursday that the BJP’s Hinduvta ideology had nothing in common with his party and added that a possible NC-BJP coalition would sound the death-knell for Kashmir.
“How can you even ask this question,” Mr. Shafi wondered. “This question itself and any thought of allying with the BJP is an insult to me.”
He said under the present circumstances allying with the PDP was the best option for the NC and hoped that the two regional parties would come together to form the government.
The PDP, however, has not responded to Mr. Abdullah’s suggestion of an alliance, and according to party sources it was not even mulling the option.
