The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may be ideologically opposed to each other, but the fractured electoral mandate in Jammu and Kashmir has forced the two parties to come together. Now they have to formulate a common minimum programme that can be the basis of a stable government.
The informal talks leading to a decision to form a government, sources said, are over. The next stage is a structured dialogue on the common minimum programme, one that will clarify the coalition’s stand on contentious issues. On Wednesday, both PDP spokesperson Naeem Akthar and BJP general secretary Ram Madhav told journalists that these issues were under discussion.
These include a common position on Article 370, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and renewed talks with Pakistan. If initially, it had seemed impossible that two parties that are ideological opposites could come together, it has eventually emerged as the only solution.
Even a senior Congress leader from the State told The Hindu : “It’s not just the only way to respect the people’s verdict, if the PDP had formed a government with either the National Conference or the Congress [parties that are ideologically closer], it would have resulted in total communal polarisation in the State Assembly with dangerous ramifications outside.”
The BJP has, after all, won 25 seats in the 87-seat Assembly, all from the Hindu-dominant Jammu region, just three behind the PDP’s 28. If the BJP is not part of the government, its espousal of causes antithetical to that of the PDP, would make a difficult situation worse. Congress sources stress, J&K is not just a border State with simmering militancy, it’s three regions have distinct religious identities. The NC and the Congress had initially separately publicly and privately indicated their willingness to support the PDP. The BJP, on its part, had stressed to the PDP, according to a Central Minister, that even though it hadn’t won any seats in the Valley, allying itself to either the Congress or the NC would not honour the people’s verdict.
Now with the PDP and the BJP fielding two candidates each for the coming Rajya Sabha polls for the four seats from the State, they have signalled their intention of going together. The PDP, as the larger party, has thus far been in a better bargaining position. PDP leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, reports suggest, will be the Chief Minister for six years, with a BJP representative as the Deputy Chief Minister.
