Neeraj Rohmetra
Jammu, Feb 10: Setting the stage for Government formation, the stalwarts of BJP and PDP are likely to start the structured dialogue soon to hammer out a Common Minimum Programme, which will form the basis for Government formation in the State.
Highly placed sources said that the dialogue will be held between the State leadership of BJP and PDP and each party will nominate three members for the dialogue process.
“However, during the informal discussions, it had been broadly agreed to have PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as the Chief Minister for full term and the Deputy CM would be from the saffron party. Veteran BJP leader, Prof Nirmal Singh is the front-runner for the post of Deputy Chief Minister”, sources pointed out.
Sources said, “though there was need to sort out several contentious issues, the political leadership of both parties was determined to iron out their differences and arrive at a broad consensus to lead the way forward”.
“It will be for the first time in the history of State that BJP, which won 25 seats from Jammu province in the recently concluded Assembly elections would become part of Government formation process”, sources said.
“PDP, which has emerged as the single largest party with 28 MLAs, had also got offer of unconditional support from National Conference (15), Congress (12), besides Independents and Others (7), which was sufficient to cross the half-way mark. But, it had turned down their request and chose to align with BJP, which is also in power at the Centre”, source asserted.
“The PDP leadership rejected the offer from Congress and NC on the plea that having any truck with these political outfits would tantamount to ignoring the massive mandate from Jammu region, which was clearly in favour of BJP”, source said adding, “PDP-BJP would be able to provide a stable political alternative to the State, with representation from all regions”.
The contentious issues, on which both parties had divergent views, would be dealt with in the CMP so as to create a ground for the smooth functioning of the coalition Government. The broad contours of the PDP-BJP alliance were quite evident during the recently concluded Rajya Sabha polls, when both the parties joined hands and wrested three seats from the Congress-NC coalition.
Sources said, “the structured dialogue would be focussed on the contentious issues like Article 370, AFSPA, settlement of West Pak Refugees (WPRs), return of hydro power projects, initiation of talks with Pakistan and the separatists, liberalisation of trade along Line of Control (LoC), Tourism, Delimitation Commission and few other issues”.
“To take the discussions forward, both the political allies are likely to put most of the controversial issues like Article 370 on the back burner. Even the BJP’s Vision Document, which was released before the State Assembly elections was silent on the issue of Article 370, which grants special status to the State under Indian Constitution”, sources said.
Another important issue is that of AFSPA, which finds mention in PDP’s Common Minimum Programme (CMP). While the People’s Democratic Party wants the AFSPA to be lifted from a few places, the BJP feels the decision wouldn’t be consistent with their ideologies. PDP has been pressing for removal of AFSPA in a time-bound manner from the trouble-free areas of the region including Jammu, Udhampur, Kathua, Srinagar and Ganderbal.
“On the issue of talks with Pakistan, though PDP understands that the subject falls under the ambit of Central Government, it desires that the BJP follow the Vajpayee doctrine and hold talks with its neighbour. The party is also in favour of holding parleys with separatists as was done by former Deputy Prime Minister, L K Advani”, sources said.
Sources said though the BJP was ready to dump its core issue of abrogation of Article 370, provided the PDP agreed to discuss humanitarian issues like the citizenship rights to West Pakistani refugees and the issue of Delimitation Commission.
PDP sources said the party also strongly favoured further strengthening of the cross-LoC trade, which has been started on Uri- Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawlakote route and also supported the idea of opening of new routes including Jammu-Sialkot.
“Other issues, which have been already discussed informally between the political allies included the return of power projects (Uri and Dul Hasti), generation of more employment avenues, massive promotion of tourism in both regions, setting of high tech industrial centres etc”, sources asserted.
“However, leaders of both parties expressed confident that they would be able to cobble an alliance and provide good governance to the people”, sources asserted.
On February 9, the newly formed PDP-BJP alliance had also wrested three Rajya Sabha seats from National Conference and Congress leaving only one for the former coalition partners. Two candidates of PDP-Mir Mohammad Fayaz and Nazir Ahmad Laway (both of whom had lost last year’s Assembly elections) and BJP nominee Shamsher Singh Manhas made it to the Rajya Sabha.
It is pertinent to mention here that in 2002 also, Congress and PDP had formed a CMP, which formed the basis of the then coalition Government.
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