No objection to Mehbooba becoming CM, hints BJP

The meeting is seen as politically significant as BJP, an ally of PDP, has yet not officially extended support to Mehbooba for the chief ministership after Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s demise.

“So far nothing has changed”.

Earlier, Mehbooba a known firebrand leader of the state, had only one responsibility to look after the affairs of party and to represent the sentiments of the people of the state, while her father Mufti Sayeed was looking after governance and Delhi-Srinagar relations.

“They spurned that offer when we must it previous year”, he said.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s meeting with Mehbooba Mufti after the death of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had raised eyebrows over a possible alliance of the Congress with the PDP.

Amidst the growing uncertainty the hawks in PDP, who were held in check by Mufti, have begun to make noises again. They have to think about the process they have to complete.

“It is for PDP to take the first call from their side”.

In the season of Chilla-i-Kalan – the 40 harshest days of the Kashmir winter when the snow strips the trees down to their bare barks and the water on the Dal freezes over – political uncertainty has generated an odd kind of unseasonal heat.

To ally or not to ally, was the question Thoughout its campaigning, PDP had mobilised public opinion and garnered support on the pretext that it was the only viable option to stop an aggressive BJP from making inroads in the state.

“If they negotiate with the new conditions, even we will have conditions. PDP has to be forthcoming”.

However, senior PDP leaders dismissed such rumours, saying that the PDP’s alliance with the BJP was formed by the late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and it would continue. “We had an alliance months ago with the grand vision of the state’s development”. Yet, the seemingly irreconcilable was papered over in the larger interest of the State. With the mourning period over on Sunday, BJP expects political discussion within PDP to start now following which it will respond accordingly, he said.

Gandhi had come here as Mehbooba has had long association with her and Congress, he told reporters. Of Mufti’s four children, Mehbooba’s pain is perhaps the greatest because of the twin roles she played in his life – that of daughter and political collaborator. And today, Union minister Nitin Gadkari also visited Mehbooba’s home to offer condolence to the family. They later had a bitter split in 2008.

J&K is under governor’s rule since Friday as Mehbooba, who was supposed to take oath as first woman CM of the state, declined to do so till end of the fourth day mourning period of her father’s death.

Ms. Gandhi’s visit came a day after the Centre announced that the state was brought under Governor’s Rule with effect from January 8.