Srinagar:Hinting that it is ready to do business with BJP, the PDP, which has emerged as the single lar-gest party in the Assembly elections, on Saturday sought assurance from its prospective partners over contentious issues like safeguarding Article 370 and revocation of AFSPA.
“All options are still open. No decision has been taken yet on formation of government in the state with any other party,” PDP spo-kesperson Naeem Akhter told PTI here. He said the leadership of PDP, which has won 28 of the 87 seats in the Assembly, was discussing all its options for govern-ment formation, hinting at an alliance with the BJP.
“There are certain issues which form our core agenda and require an assurance that these will be accepted by our potential alliance partner, whichever party it might be,” he said. Akhter said his party’s stand on safeguarding Article 370, which guarantees special status to Jammu and Kashmir within the Indian union, was non-negotiable. He also said that the party was committed to revoca-tion of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act from the state, besides initiating a political process for resolution of Kashmir issue.
The PDP and the second largest party BJP, which has won 25 seats, all in Jammu, have been invited by Governor N N Vohra for separate discussions over government formation by January 1. Asked if his party would consider the demand for rotational chief minis-tership from any future alliance partner, the PDP spokesman said the nego-tiations have not reached that stage with any of the parties.
He said Congress has also given a proposal for government formation to the PDP which is under the consideration by the party. On the National Confe-rence’s offer of uncondi-tional support to PDP for government formation, Akhter said his party has received no such communi-cation so far from its arch rival. “As and when such an offer is received we will surely discuss it and decide the future course of action,” he said.
National Conference working president Omar Abdullah had yesterday said that his party had only conveyed a “verbal offer” to the PDP through an intermediary. The PDP leadership is caught in a ‘catch 22’ situation with some influential leaders within the party strongly opposing an alliance with the BJP on the grounds that such a partnership can reverse the gains made by the party during recent times. A senior PDP leader, on the condition of anony-mity, said an alliance with the BJP would be “suicidal” for the regional party.
“While good gover-nance and develo-pment is a universal yearning among the people, people in a sensitive place like Kashmir also keenly watch the friends you keep. One of the reasons for decline of National Conference was its hob-nobbing with which-ever party was in power at the Centre,” he said.(PTI)
