Asem Mohiuddin Myth
With only a week left for the first phase of urban local body polls, the speculations again are rife regarding the formation of government in state.
The Jammu and Kashmir is under governor’s rule since the fall of BJP-PDP coalition two months back. While the both main region political parties PDP and NC have decided to boycott the local urban and Panchyat polls it is to be believed that both of them are in back channel talks to form the coalition in state.
The first suggestion was placed to both the parties by the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Society Coordination Committee and urged them to join hands to protect the Article 35 A against which many petitions have been filed in Supreme Court. In fact both the parties even have decided to stay away from elections after BJP refused to defend the article that grants special privileges to the state under the Constitution of India.
Immediately after the suggestion was placed by the civil society group that comprises members from both Kashmir and Jammu regions the senior leaders of both the parties welcomed the suggestion.
“The suggestion of J&K Civil Society Coordination Committee for an alliance of National Conference and PDP for formation of a new government for fighting strongly to protect Article 35-A and challenges to Article 370 are welcome.” He told media and cleared it as his own opinion and not the party.
However, Bukhari is believed to be one of the main confidants of Mehbooba Mufti and is critically involved in the party affairs.
In the NC camp, his comments were seconded by one of the leaders Mian Altaf who said that there is nothing wrong in staying united for the common cause though the final call over the coalition forming lies with party vice president Omar Abdullah.
“To my personal opinion fighting together for a common cause and keeping communal forces away the idea of coalition with PDP is a welcome step, however it is not easy in the present circumstances in state. So it is upto Omar Abdullah to decide over it,” he responded to the call of Bukhari.
If the sources are believed there is no formal talk going on over the issue while both the parties are contemplating to build a pressure over New Delhi.
In the last several months the BJP in New Delhi has severely pushed the local parties to the corner after BJP maintained that both of them are playing dual politics in Kashmir and turn separatist’s sympathizers.
Undeniably, the space for the local mainstream politics is substantially shrinking due to tough approach of New Delhi and growing graph of militancy. The BJP after pulsing out in state have also put the Assembly in suspended animation.
“It seems a pressure building tactic by the NC and PDP on BJP to go for fresh elections and dissolve the assembly. When the chances for BJP are bleak to form the government after multiple unsuccessful attempts it is still not dissolving the assembly and blocks the way for fresh elections in state,” said the sources.
The NC and Congress seem desperate to have fresh elections while knowing that PDP and BJP ahs lost the substantial ground in state. But here they tighter want to build pressure on BJP which stands tall with strong support from New Delhi. So joining hands by all is but natural,” sources added.
The sources, however, do not rule out the possibility of formation of coalition in state since politics is all about the opportunities with no permanent enemies.
But the BJP is viewing the attempts of regional parties in a different perspective.
“They all want to make upcoming grassroots level elections failure in state since they opposed them from beginning. As New Delhi refuses to budge and decided to conducts the polls, they are using now a different tactics to demoralize the process.
This we won’t let happen,” said a senior BJP leader refusing to reveal his name.
