Mehbooba Mufti’s plan to quit coalition was leaked: Sham Lal

Sham Lal Sharma, senior Congress leader from Jammu, said recently that before the BJP pulled the plug on the PDP-BJP government, Mehbooba was planning to leave the coalition, but it was leaked from her office and it gave the BJP time to take the step first.
He said while reacting to the reports of the BJP-PDP coming together to form the government again.
“There are no chances of the BJP again aligning with the PDP to form the government in the state. The BJP has realised that they have failed to stick to their ideological stand of one nation, one constitution and one flag,” Sham Lal told Kashmir Post in an interview.
“Coming out of the alliance was a blessing for the BJP, which got the information from a security official inside Mehbooba Mufti’s office that she was thinking of quitting the coalition government if the Ramzan ceasefire was not extended. Naeem Akhtar had informed her about the Centre’s plans of not extending the Ramzan ceasefire and before she could have taken the decision of leaving the coalition, the word was leaked and the BJP got the opportunity to pull out,” the Congress leader said.
He said coming out of the coalition became a face saving exercise for the BJP.
Commenting on polarisation by the BJP ahead of the 2019 elections, he said, “They have already started it from Assam and in J&K it is going on. The Kathua incident is an example that both BJP and PDP have tried taking political mileage from it. But things went out of their hands when the media took over the issue.”
Maintaining that the Congress in J&K has better chances of coming back to power, Sham Lal said that the Congress was the only party with acceptability in all three regions. “Brotherhood and social fabric is what we believe in and we have leaders and workers in all three regions. We had some issues with the organisational set up, but off late we are putting the house in order,” he said.