PDP-BJP inching towards alliance PDP to contest 2 RS seats, leaves two others for alliance partner Srinagar: Peoples Democratic Party and rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are inching towards an alliance with PDPdeciding to contest only two of the four Rajya Sabha seats in the State leaving two for its prospective alliance partner.“We will do an arrangement with whichever party because it will be fora limited purpose floor management to gain maximum out of the split verdict and just 28 seats,” PDP Chief Spokesman Naeem Akhtar told Rising Kashmir.Refraining from accepting party’s alliance with BJP, he said things would become clearer soon.Akhtar said party has decided to contest two RS seats in the State. “We will be fielding Fayaz Ahmad Mirand Nazir Ahmad Laway for the two seats”.He said the decision was taken by the party president Mehbooba Mufti after consulting senior leaders of the party.Insiders in PDP said the party has learnt that National Conference (NC) and Congress are trying to forge an alliance for the RS polls. “In such a case, the party would be left with no option but to align with BJP to win maximum seats”.“PDP will fall short of numbers in case party decides to go it alone. However, by aligning with BJP, the combine can win three or all seats,” they said.A senior PDP leader said the party has left two seats for its prospective alliance partner.“While we would be contesting two seats and have fielded candidates from Valley, BJP will contest two other seats by fielding candidates from Jammu,” he said.Both PDP and BJP, which have emerged as two leading parties in 87-member J&K Assembly with 28 and 25 seats respectively, are engaged in informal talks on government formation in the State. The parties are trying to sort out issues to form a common minimum programme for running coalition government.Akhtar said the talks so far have been going on well.He, however, maintained that government formation and RS polls are two different things.“Both issues (government formation and RS polls) are different from each other. The two issues should not be connected,” he said.Sources said both the parties have reached common ground on key issues like Article 370 and revocationof AFSPA. Both parties have extreme views on the two issues. Senior leaders from both sides said informal communication has yielded good results. “This is reason why theparties would go together in the RS polls.”
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 04:04:47 +0000
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