Amid rumours about the formation of government in J&K, a crucial meeting of BJP legislators will be held on Wednesday morning to discuss the prevailing political scenario in the state.
The meeting is significant as top party leaders have repeatedly been claiming that they are in touch with “like-minded” legislators of other parties to form a democratic dispensation.
“We have called all our legislators, including MLAs and MLCs, for an important meeting on Wednesday morning,” Ravinder Raina, state BJP president, told The Tribune. However, he refused to divulge the agenda of the meeting.
Sources said the aim of the meeting was to exert pressure on the high command to explore possibilities of forming government.
Governor’s rule was imposed in the state after the BJP dumped the PDP on June 19. Since the imposition of Governor’s rule, a group within the saffron party has been mounting pressure on the Central leadership to form a government.
The sources said during his recent visit to Kashmir, BJP’s pointman in J&K and party’s national general secretary Ram Madhav had assured state unit leaders that initiatives regarding government formation would be taken only after the conclusion of the annual Amarnath yatra, which ended on August 26.
During his Kashmir visit on August 9, Madhav had held a meeting with party’s state unit leaders. He had also met Peoples’ Conference leader Sajjad Lone, who is a coalition partner of the BJP.
“After Wednesday’s meeting, we will convey to the high command to explore possibilities of forming a new government,” a top BJP leader, who wished not to be quoted, told The Tribune. He said, “majority of the party legislators are of the view it should be done as early as possible.”
In the 87-member J&K Assembly, the Peoples Democratic Party has 28 MLAs, BJP has 25, National Conference has 15, Congress has 12 and Peoples Conference two. The BJP requires support of at least 17 MLAs to achieve the magic figure of 44.
