PM Narendra Modi, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to seal J&K alliance today
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Peoples Democratic Party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed will meet on Friday to seal the deal between Bharatiya Janata Party and PDP to form a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir.
The meet comes after hectic parleys between BJP and PDP leaders, which went on for weeks to reach consensus on some sensitive issues like the AFSPA, rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits and Article 370.
According to reports, after the Modi-Mufti meeting, the BJP legislature party will choose Nirmal Singh as its leader in the Assembly while the PDP will elect Sayeed.
Sayeed will be sworn-in as Chief Minister of PDP-BJP coalition government in J&K at 11 am on Sunday.
Highly-placed sources said the document prepared by the two sides mainly focuses on development and providing job opportunities to youths. The document also lists ways and means for rehabilitation of nearly 60,000 Kashmiri Pandit families who had left the Kashmir Valley after the onset of militancy in early 1990s, as per PTI.
On Article 370, while BJP has given no written assurance as demanded by PDP, the document is expected to say that both parties will respect the aspirations of the people of the state within the Constitution, the sources indicated.
The proposed document may also touch upon the issue of more than 25,000 families of West Pakistani refugees by terming it a humanitarian issue. The other issues include handing over of hydel projects to the state government and vacating of land and buildings by the Army in the Valley.
Opposition parties National Conference and Congress have termed the way in which talks for an alliance government has dragged on for weeks as mere posturing by PDP and BJP and claimed that both the parties have already arrived at a consensus and were making attempts to fool people of the state.
Presidents of both the parties, Mehbooba Mufti of PDP and Amit Shah of BJP, had met on Tuesday after which they announced formation of a coalition government in the state.
The December 23 election results saw a highly-fractured mandate with PDP emerging as single largest party with 28 MLAs followed by BJP with 25. Erstwhile allies National Conference and Congress ended with 15 and 12 seats respectively.
