BJP, PDP agree to form coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir
The ruling party in the Centre projected Nirmal Singh as its deputy chief ministerial nominee again and also supported Mehbooba Mufti's candidature for chief minister.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday accepted the People's Democratic Party's the proposal to form a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir. The party projected Nirmal Singh as its deputy chief ministerial nominee again. BJP state president Sat Sharma said the party also supported Mehbooba Mufti's candidature as chief minister. PDP legislators unanimously elected Mufti as the party's chief ministerial candidate in a meeting on Thursday.
Both parties will meet Governor NN Vohra after holding consultations on government formation. Vohra had summoned the BJP and PDP separately on Friday to discuss government constitution, but Sharma said they will get the meeting postponed. “A small group of two or three leaders from each party will hold deliberations before meeting him [Vohra],” he said, adding that the government will function on the basis of an agreed agenda of alliance that will have no alterations, PTI reported.
On Tuesday, Mufti had triggered further speculation that talks with the BJP were back on track, when she said her meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been "positive". The PDP-BJP coalition in Jammu and Kashmir took a turn for the worse following former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's death in January. He died in a hospital in Delhi, after which the state came under the governor's rule. Mehbooba Mufti had refused to take over and maintained that BJP was violating the fundamental terms of the agreement of their alliance, a claim that the party denied.