Mehbooba’s call to Omar 4 days ago sealed deal

The political dalliance between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the National Conference (NC), always on the opposite sides of the fence in Jammu and Kashmir, may have been all too short. It lasted a few hours between PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti staking a claim for forming a new state government with the support of the NC and the Congress and the dissolution of the assembly by Governor Satya Pal Malik on Wednesday night.

But efforts to bring them together went back at least a month, and it was a call from Mufti to NC vice president Omar Abdullah four days ago that sealed the partnership, people familiar with the developments said. Senior PDP leader and former J&K finance minister Altaf Bukhari made the first overtures to the NC last month, holding two meetings with NC patron and Srinagar MP Farooq Abdullah, Omar’s father.

‘’Secret parleys had been going on between the NC, Congress and the PDP leadership for one month at the highest level. It was a phone call from Mehbooba Mufti to Omar Abdullah four days ago that accelerated the process of forming this new alliance,’’ a senior PDP leader with knowledge of the talks said.

Mufti was even willing to let Omar Abdullah or Farooq Abdullah lead the alliance although the PDP had 28 members in the now dissolved assembly, almost twice the NC’s strength in the 87-member assembly. “Both Omar and Farooq declined to head the government; however, they committed support of their 15 legislators to this new alliance,’’ the person cited above said.

A proposal for the PDP, NC and the Congress to join hands and bid for power had come up after the 2014 assembly elections, but then the PDP opted to join a coalition with the BJP instead, reasoning that formation of any other alliance would be a betrayal of the mandate of the people of Jammu, where BJP secured all 25 seats.

The PDP-BJP alliance lasted almost 40 months before collapsing in June, when BJP pulled out of the coalition.

Civil society organisations met leaders of the PDP, NC and Congress and proposed that they join forces to safeguard Article 35-A of the Constitution, which offers special privileges and rights to permanent residents of J&K and is facing a challenge in the courts.

“It was an idea of civil society, but a few senior leaders from all three parties toiled hard to get it matured. First, Farooq Abdullah was taken on-board, then Omar Abdullah was roped in. The call from Mehbooba Mufti set the ball rolling though in both the parties, many leaders were opposed to it,’’ said a PDP leader.

Another senior leader said J&K Pradesh Congress Committee president Ghulam Ahmad Mir discussed the issue with party colleague Ambika Soni, who received the nod for the alliance from the Congress high command.

“Mehbooba Mufti also spoke to Ambika Soni and then Soni and Omar also had a discussion over this,’’ said this person, who didn’t want to be named. “...former finance minister Altaf Bukhari was considered a consensus choice,’’ the person said.

People in the PDP and NC said that the final trigger for the alliance came when Junaid Mattu, with the blessings of the BJP, won the Srinagar mayoral election and BJP general secretary Ram Madhav flew from Delhi to Srinagar to meet the councillors. Some BJP leaders hinted that a new government led by BJP ally and former minister Sajjad Lone of the People’s Conference was in the works after panchayat polls end next month.