National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah, on February 7, made it clear that his party is not ready to support BJP in case the PDP-BJP alliance snaps in the state.
Abdullah also said that PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti must break her silence as she cannot keep the entire state guessing on government formation.
“Mehbooba Mufti has been quiet for long and she can no longer remain silent. She must clarify her stand on two-three issues and clear the air as to what are those CBMs and how long she will wait for those Confidence Building Measures and why did the need of CBMs suddenly arise after the demise of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a function in Jammu.
The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said that although an elected government is not in place, the alliance between PDP and BJP is still intact.
“The agreement as far as our knowledge is concerned, the alliance (between BJP and PDP) still exists. We haven’t heard either from BJP or PDP that alliance has been broken, so the alliance exists and if the alliance exists, then why not government (is formed).
“Agenda of the alliance was formed and Mufti sahab was made the chief minister. What has changed in the past ten months that today even though they have numbers in the assembly they are not ready to form the government”, he said.
Abdullah said that National Conference has been telling them time and again that if they are not ready to form the government, they should be bold enough to break the alliance.
“We will go back to the people, but I am unable to understand the way of their leadership. They ask for Confidence Building Measures, but I am not sure that within the party people know or not, but outside nobody knows what they have asked for,” he said.
He said that even BJP was not aware of what PDP was asking for. “Even as BJP has said that please clearly tell us what you are asking for, so we too would want to know what are the CBMs which Mehbooba Mufti is asking for, and did they keep a time-frame, a deadline,” he said.
Abdullah said, “Even if Mehbooba has demanded some CBMs then she should tell the people that what are the CBMs and should also fix a timeframe as the state is not going to wait for them forever.
“They should have a timeframe and say if in so many days we don’t get a reply, then this alliance is finished and we will go to the people.”
Asked whether his party would support BJP if the latter approaches it for government formation, he said that his doors for BJP were closed a year ago and they remain closed even on Sunday.
“Earlier also BJP had explored those options. I have time and again said that National Conference as of today is not willing to form any relationship with them (BJP). I am not even ready discuss this issue. We closed the doors for BJP a year ago and the doors continue be to closed even today”, he said.
On his party’s alliance with BJP when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister, Mr Abdullah said that BJP has changed over the years.
“That alliance did not convert into an alliance for the state as that was restricted to the Centre only and there is a huge difference between BJP of Vajpayee and that of today,” he said.
Mr Abdullah said that his party is ready to go to the people as it always wanted BJP to be kept out of government in Jammu and Kashmir and that was the reason that his party had offered unconditional support to PDP after the Assembly polls.
“We are ready to go to the people. We had made an offer a year ago that if Mufti sahab wanted to be the chief minister, National Conference was ready to offer unconditional support as we did not wanted to see BJP in the government in the state and we knew that with the coming of BJP, the situation in the state will not improve and will worsen and that is evident from the past ten months, be it in Jammu or in Kashmir,” he said.
