New Delhi: The first formal announcement of a PDP-BJP alliance government in Jammu and Kashmir was made by PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and BJP President Amit Shah who met here to give final touches to the Common Minimum Programme (CMP).
This will be followed by a meeting between PDP patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, who is set to be the J-K Chief Minister, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow after which the CMP will be made public on Thursday, official sources said.
The swearing-in ceremony is likely to take place on March 1 with the date having been chosen keeping in mind that it is an “auspicious day”. After the 45-minute-long meeting between Mehbooba and Shah at the latter’s residence here, both the party chiefs appeared before the media and made the announcement about the formation of the “popular” alliance government in the state.
“After several round of talks on different issues, there is near consensus on a CMP and very soon the people of J-K will have a popular alliance government of PDP and BJP,” Shah said. He said that the date and time of the government formation will be announced after Modi meets Sayeed.
“The meeting will be held shortly,” he said, adding that both the parties will release the contents of the CMP thereafter. “But I am happy that all obstacles in government formation have almost been removed,” he said. Without identifying the contentious issues between the two parties, Mehbooba said that the two parties have “fortunately” arrived at a consensus on crucial issues. Terming the CMP as an “agenda for alliance”, she said the coalition was not for “power sharing” but about winning the hearts and minds of the people in the state.
She termed her alliance different from other alliances of the past and said that “for the first time, the interests of the people of the state as well as national interest has been kept in mind”.
The alliance provides an opportunity to end “alienation” of the people of the state from the rest of the country by giving them a development-oriented and corruption-free administration. The key factors in the formulation of the alliance were development, aspiration, prosperity and peace for the people of J-K. “I am happy that the two parties have adopted a middle path from which both, the state as well as the country, will benefit,” Mehbooba said. She was accompanied by party MP Muzzafar Hussain Baig to Shah’s residence. While PDP handed over a bouquet to Shah, the BJP chief, in return, presented a shawl to Mehbooba. (PTI)
