BJP''s Short-Lived Alliance With PDP Short-Circuited Its Tryst With Power In J And K

The BJP, which has been forging alliances across the country to form governments, had tried the same thing in Jammu and Kashmir for the first time in 2014 by tying up with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but it did not last its full term.

Even though the BJP had earlier an alliance with National Conference (NC) from 1999 to 2002, it was the first time that the saffron party shared power in Jammu and Kashmir through the coalition with PDP.

In December 2014, elections to the 87-member Assembly threw up a hung house, with the PDP winning 28 seats, BJP getting 25, NC 15 and Congress 12.

As no party was in a position to form the government, the state was brought under Governor”s rule on December 28.

Soon, BJP and PDP established contact with each other and started talks on forging alliance. It took them over two months to finalise the Agenda of Alliance for running the government, which was formed on March 1, 2015 with PDP leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as the Chief Minister and Nirmal Singh of BJP as Deputy Chief Minister.

It was a unique experiment, considering that the ideologies of the two parties are completely in contrast with each other. While BJP is a far right party, the PDP is seen as a party with soft separatist leanings.

The coalition went on well for some time but suffered a setback when Mufti Sayeed passed away on January 7, 2016 due to illness.

The government collapsed as BJP and PDP, now completely under the leadership of Sayeed”s daughter Mehbooba Mufti, failed to arrive at an understanding on what to do about the coalition and Governor”s rule was imposed again. The PDP wanted a new Agenda of Alliance to be drafted with certain assurances from the Modi government at the Centre regarding issues of Jammu and Kashmir.