The much awaited swearing-in ceremony of PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti (Chief Minister-designate) has once again hit a major road block in Jammu & Kashmir.
No one else but her own alliance partner BJP is putting a spoke in the wheel to halt her march towards the ‘hot seat’.
Compared to their previous innings under Mufti Mohd Sayeed this time BJP is determined to get equal share in the Council of Ministers along with fair distribution of ‘plum portfolios’.
The ongoing ‘tug of war’ has already created a precarious situation for the PDP leadership as they have been accused by their adversaries in the Kashmir Valley for having compromising their stated position for the sake of grabbing power.
The deadlock may not end soon and may further delay the oath ceremony earlier expected to take place in the first week of April.
Uncompromising BJP is even determined to stall the oath ceremony till their demands are met by the PDP chief. It is learnt Mehbooba is personally supervising back room deliberations to end the stalemate soon.
“In the absence of any formal contact between the leaders of the two parties in the last five days the possibility of oath ceremony taking place before the start of Navratra festival looks bleak" a senior party MlA and former minister told The Pioneer after attending the core group meeting here in Jammu on wednesday. The meeting was chaired by senior Vice president and in-charge J&K Affairs Avinash Rai Khanna.
"There is a general perception that as the number of our MlAs is same as that of PDP, there is nothing wrong if we expect that our numbers (in government) to be same. We should get just and equitable share in distribution of power," BJP’s state unit chief spokesman Sunil Sethi told reporters ahead of a party meeting in Jammu.
He said the state leadership has conveyed the matter to the party high command.
"It is for the party high command now how they negotiate the same (with PDP)," Sethi said.
The PDP has so far remained silent and has not reacted to the tough posturing by the BJP over the issue but Opposition parties are making life miserable for Mehbooba Mufti to explain her stand as inordinate delay is ruining the credibility of the political class in the state due to overwhelming logjam in the state.
The Congress party has accused Mehbooba Mufti of surrendering before the RSS while Jammu and Kashmir Panthers party has questioned the sanctity of the BJP-PDP alliance in the State.
Former MlA and and Chairman Panthers Party Harsh Dev Singh said, "BJP has so far not extended formal support to the PDP to form alliance Govt in the State". He said the letter of support which was handed over by the BJP leader Prof Nirmal Singh was ‘vague’ and can be dubbed as expression of intent. "It cannot be treated as letter of support. He said "It is totally wrong. This shows that BJP have no faith on PDP. If BJP supports PDP, the language should be clear. Mehbooba Mufti after taking stake to form Government said "BJP gave her unconditional support." This means she was wrong in saying so, Harsh Dev said.
The contents of the letter addressed to Governor N N Vohra by the State BJP Chief Sat Pal Sharma read, "This has reference to your letter No PS/HG 2016/717 dated 22 March 2016, regarding formation of Government in the State…The legislative Party of BJP, J&K has met on 25-03-2016 at Jammu and decided to extend support to PDP in principle in the formation of the coalition Government of PDP and BJP in Jammu and Kashmir".