J&K’s political thriller ends in anticlimax, House dissolved
PDP stakes claim with Cong, NC backing; Sajjad Lone makes own case; Guv invites neither
SRINAGAR/JAMMU: At the end of a day of dramatic developments, Jammu & Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik on Wednesday night dissolved the state assembly in a contentious decision that may well be challenged in the courts.
The dissolution, announced in a statement by Raj Bhawan, came after Mehbooba Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its arch-rival National Conference (NC) teamed up with the Congress for a shot at government formation with the support of 56 legislators in the 87-member assembly. The People’s Conference led by Sajjad Lone, later staked a rival claim, saying it had the support of 25 legislators belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and “more than 18” others.
Prior to dissolving the assembly, the governor consulted the Union government, people close to the central leadership said. The action, under Article 53, does not need to be ratified by Parliament under J&K’s Constitution.
“The impossibility of forming a stable government by the coming together of political parties with opposing political ideologies including some which have been demanding dissolution of the Assembly; whereas the experience of the past few years shows that with the fractured mandate that is there in the Assembly, it is not possible to form a stable government comprising of like-minded parties,” the governor said in a statement.
Since five months, we shared view that the state assembly be dissolved... Oddly enough our pleas fell on deaf ears. But who would have thought the very idea of a grand coalition would give such jitters MEHBOOBA MUFTI, PDP chief
And I never thought I’d be retweeting anything you said while agreeing with you. Politics truly is a strange world. Good luck for the battle ahead. Once again the wisdom of the people will prevail. OMAR ABDULLAH, NC leader
BJP welcomes decision taken by the J&K Governor. Once again, NC, Congress and PDP hatched a conspiracy in Jammu and Kashmir that would have done injustice to Jammu and Ladakh RAVINDER RAINA, state BJP chief
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“The coming together of such parties in a grouping is nothing but an attempt to gain power rather than to form a responsive government,” he added, and also spoke of “reports of extensive horse trading and possible exchange of money”.
In my twenty six year old career as a politician, I thought I had seen it all! But like they say never say never!,” Mufti wrote in a Twitter post, thanking NC leader and former chief minister Omar Abdullah and the Congress’s Ambika Soni “for helping us achieve the seemingly impossible.”
The PDP had 28 members in the assembly, the NC 15 and the Congress 12. The bloc had the support of one independent MLA as well. The People’s Conference, besides 25 legislators of the BJP’s, claimed the support of “more than 18” other MLAs; it had two seats of its own, and had been counting on the support of dissidents from the PDP.
Senior PDP leader Muzaffar Baig on Wednesday said he may quit the party and join a “third front” with Sajjad Lone.
“No other governor in the recent times has dissolved an elected assembly, that too in such a highly sensitive state as Jammu & Kashmir,” senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said in New Delhi.
“This is a 360-degree failure of the Centre and the earlier state government in J&K. Violation of ceasefire, cross-border terrorism, civilian killings and army killings—there is a twothree fold rise on all these parameters. We may challenge this decision in the court of law but first we have to study the JK governor’s order...”
Following assembly elections in 2014, the PDP and the BJP ruled J&K in a coalition that lasted almost 40 months. In June, the Bhartiya Janta Party ( BJP) parted ways with the PDP.