Deal Or No Deal? Mehbooba Mufti And BJP To Meet Governor

The BJP's top leaders in the state met this morning and are headed to Delhi, where they will discuss with party chief Amit Shah, the PDP or People Democratic Party's conditions for a renewal of their alliance.

Mehbooba Mufti wants a written assurance, sources said, on key demands of her regional party on contentious issues like Article 370, which grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

The PDP also wants the Armed Forced Special Powers Act or AFPSA revoked in the state. AFPSA gives the army the authority to make arrests without a warrant.

Also on its list of demands is that three key power projects be handed over by the Centre to the state government. Ms Mufti wants the Centre to deliver on promises made in a common agenda of governance they had agreed upon.

The BJP, in a huddle today, does not want to seem like the party breaking an alliance or forcing fresh elections, sources said.

But it is also unlikely to give the PDP a written assurance on core issues like Article 370, on which the two parties traditionally have divergent stands.

The alliance has been brought to an edge by the seeming reluctance of Mehbooba Mufti to renew it. Ms Mufti has refused to take oath as chief minister more than three weeks after her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed died.  

On Sunday, she delivered a broad hint that she would prefer fresh elections in Jammu and Kashmir. "I will stand by the core ideology of PDP even if I'm all alone. I will go back to the people," sources quoted her as saying at a party meeting.  

Signals from the PDP are mixed; a section of the leaders reportedly said at Sunday's meeting that they were in favour of immediate government formation. President's Rule was imposed in the state after the Mufti's death on January 7, with Mehbooba refusing to take oath.

The PDP is the largest party in the 87-member assembly with 27 seats. It tied up with second largest party, the BJP, which has 25 seats, in an uncomfortable alliance of ideological opposites.