| Farooq, Sagar smell opportunity in political crisis | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Jan 21: The out-of-power National Conference (NC) leadership is leaving no stone unturned to fish in the troubled waters and exploit the prevailing situation or delay in the formation of government in Jammu and Kashmir to their own advantage. NC president and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, who suffered an ignominious defeat at the hands of the PDP's Tariq Hameed Karra in the last Lok Sabha elections, was the first to hint at the possibility of the NC and the BJP working together in case the latter approached the former. "We have not closed our doors to the BJP. If they (BJP) approach us, we will consider the formation of government with the BJP. We will discuss the issue in the working committee of the party," he had said in Jammu after Mufti Sayeed was cremated.
Notwithstanding the fact that Omar Abdullah sought to dispel the impression that Farooq Abdullah never said what was attributed to him, he too said that his father had only said that the issue of an alliance with the BJP will be discussed in the working committee if the BJP approached the NC for the purpose. In other words, he had also not completely overruled the possibility of an alliance between the NC and the BJP. His statement that the NC would play the role of opposition was not that significant. It was a political statement made to create confusion.
On Wednesday, not only Farooq Abdullah but also the party's general secretary and former minister Ali Mohammad Sagar also hinted at the same without naming the BJP. "If they (PDP and BJP) cannot make the government, then they should make it clear so that we can take the next stand, whatever it is. Why keep people waiting in a situation where terrorism is all over," Farooq Abdullah told reporters in Jammu. As far as Sagar was concerned, he said: "We'll cross the bridge when we come to it as we've no other alternative". Both of them also didn't overrule the possibility of mid-term polls. In fact, they batted for fresh polls, saying political uncertainty in the state was not in the best interest of the people. In other words, they kept all the options open.
The NC leadership has perhaps come to believe that now is the time for their party to test political waters in the state and restore the political space the party lost to the PDP in Kashmir and to the BJP in Jammu and Ladakh. Their calculation is that both the PDP and the BJP have lost their popularity in their respective regions and if fresh elections are held at this point in time, the NC would turn tables on its political foes in the Valley and in Jammu and Ladakh.
In the meantime, the PDP leadership is weighing the pros and cons of an alliance with the BJP. It is extremely difficult to predict at this point what decision Mehbooba Mufti finally takes. |
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