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Journalism of Courage
Amid continuing suspense over government formation, Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra on Friday invited for discussions PDP and BJP, the first and second largest parties in the elections, which threw up a highly-fractured verdict with no clear winner.
Vohra has sent letters separately to PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and state BJP chief Jugal Kishore “for holding discussions on the proposal for government-formation,” a Raj Bhavan official said.
The official said reasonable time has been given to them for discussions. The BJP has been called for parleys by January one, sources said.
There were reports that the Governor has also asked the two parties to come with letters of support of MLAs, including Independents, backing their claim to form government. But there was no confirmation.
BJP, which ended up with a tally of 25 in the 87-strong Assembly, and PDP, which secured 28 seats, have held discussions in the last two days to explore the possibility of coming together. There was no indication as to how the discussions have gone.
Parallelly, two other key players, the National Conference (NC) which got 15 seats and Congress (12 seats), continued to make efforts to keep BJP out of power by offering support to PDP whose response remained a matter ofspeculation.
NC Working President and outgoing Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who has already declared that there is no deal between his party and the BJP, tweeted tonight that only “a verbal offer of support” has been conveyed to the PDP.
But it looks like “PDP is playing mind games with the BJP leaking about a letter of NC support that doesn’t exist”. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad asked the BJP not to be “insensitive” and be seen indulging in “arm-twisting” tactics while “bulldozing” its way on government formation.
“The way BJP is bulldozing regional parties in Jammu and Kashmir and that’s just being insensitive towards the mandate and people of the state, ” Azad, who is Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, told reporters in Delhi.
