Apni Party ready to forge alliance with BJP: Altaf Bukhari

Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) founder Syed Altaf Bukhari has said that his party is open to forge an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “Let’s be practical. No party in J&K will be in a position to win the maximum number of seats in UT to form the government. I am open to allying with the BJP… PDP and the NC had alliances with the BJP in the past, so why make this an issue now? Let us be open to it,” Hindustan Times quoted Bukhari as saying on Thursday.

“We are waiting for elections and people are also eagerly waiting for people’s government and I am hopeful elections are only months away,” added Bukhari, who was a minister under the previous coalition government of the BJP and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) The timing of Bukhari’s announcement corresponds with the completion of the Jammu and Kashmir electoral roll revision and delimitation procedure, which opens the door for the Election Commission of India to announce the election dates.

The coalition government collapsed in 2018 after the BJP withdrew its support months after PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s demise. Following the scrapping of Article 370 in August 2019 that granted the region special rights, Bukhari made it the first mainstream party from Kashmir to approach the BJP-led Central government. Meanwhile, the BJP’s Kashmir unit has welcomed Bukhari’s decision and claimed the party will emerge as the “single largest party” in Jammu and Kashmir and form the government.