Majid Jahangir
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, June 19
Shortly after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pulled out of the J&K coalition government, which came as a surprise to its alliance partner PDP, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti submitted her resignation to Governor NN Vohra.
After her exit, Mehbooba said she was not "shocked" by the BJP decision and made it clear that the Peoples Democratic Party was not looking to explore any fresh alliance.
“I am not shocked by the decision of the BJP to pull out of the alliance,” Mehbooba said at a press briefing after an emergency meeting of the PDP top leadership at her Gupkar residence this afternoon.
She said her party had not formed the coalition with the BJP for power. “We had not done it for power. Had we done that, there were numbers with the NC (National Conference) and the Congress but we did it for some objective,” she said, adding that “we tried our best to continue in the alliance”.
Mehbooba, who had taken over as the first woman Chief Minister of the Muslim-majority J&K in April, 2016, further said that
the PDP had entered into an alliance with BJP “after much thought”.
“We had gone for this alliance after much thought and with the thought that the big party will help bridge the gap between the two regions. Our alliance was not liked by people but the ideas, for which it was made, were bigger. These included talks with Pakistan, ceasefire, reconciliation and confidence-building measures,” she added.
Mehbooba said they had defended the special status, Articles 370 and 35A and withdrawn cases against 11,000 youth.
“The Prime Minister visited Pakistan for talks but the initiative could not be taken forward. Even the ceasefire was not positively responded to,” she said.
Mehbooba stressed that mascular policy would not work in Kashmir. “This was the reason we went for the unilateral ceasefire. We dealt with the Kathua rape-murder case and we tried our best,” she said, adding that “one can’t treat Jammu and Kashmir as an enemy territory”.
Taken by surprise
The news about the BJP pulling out of the alliance came as a complete surprise to Mehbooba Mufti and her party leaders. She was at the civil secretariat when the news started making the rounds of the possible BJP pullout. She returned to her Gupkar residence around 2 pm. The Chief Minister later headed to the secretariat. After the news about the BJP decision became public, she called her senior party leaders and ministers at her residence and discussed the party’s immediate response. Mehbooba sent her resignation letter to the Governor through a party leader.
What Chief Minister said
806 days of Mehbooba govt
Seven times under Guv’s rule
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