PDP, Congress, NC ganged up on Pakistan direction to keep BJP at bay: Kavinder Gupta

Former Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta said on Wednesday that the Peoples Democratic Party, Congress and the National Conference were joining hands to form a government in the state at Pakistan’s behest.

He made the comments before the dissolution of the Assembly by Governor Satya Pal Malik on Wednesday evening.

“The three parties are ganging up to form a government in the state at Pakistan’s directions to keep the BJP away from power,” he said in a press conference. Gupta, who served as the Legislative Assembly Speaker and later as the Deputy Chief Minister during the PDP-BJP coalition, said the decision to ask the three parties to join hands was taken at a meeting in Dubai.

He claimed the representatives of the three parties had recently met members of Pakistani agencies and it was only after the directions of Pakistan that they were cobbling an alliance. “First they boycotted the urban local bodies and panchayat elections at the behest of Pakistan and now, they are stitching an alliance,” he said.

Meanwhile, within hours of the PDP and the Congress confirming that they would form a grand alliance with the outside support of the National Conference (NC), the BJP decided to launch a counter-offensive on Thursday morning to sabotage the move.

Sources said a meeting of the BJP core group will be held on Thursday to discuss the political developments in the state.

“The core group meeting will be followed by a meeting with all MLAs,” a source said, adding, “After the meeting of the legislators, the party is likely to stake a claim to form the government with the help of the PDP rebels”.

A senior BJP leader on the condition of anonymity said the state BJP leadership was in constant touch with the party high command and the party had decided to explore all possibilities to scuttle the Opposition’s move to stitch an alliance.

No comments from Madhav

• Ram Madhav, BJP point-man on Jammu and Kashmir who oversaw the party’s rise in the state, refused to talk on Wednesday’s drastic political developments.
• Madhav said he had nothing to talk about the latest political development in the state, which has failed the possibility of a ‘third front’ led by Sajad Lone and backed by the BJP forming the government.
• He quickly snapped the call before commenting further. The near-confirmation by the PDP that it is forming the government in the state in alliance with the Congress and its arch-rival NC has soured the efforts of the BJP, which was aiming to form first-such state government that would have excluded state’s main political parties.