Bengaluru: The BJP’s national executive on Saturday endorsed the formation of a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the development of the state.
“The nature of mandate decided the possible course of a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir. The popular feeling within the state was that the governance deficit must go and development politics must come up,” union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters here after the meet ended.
Party general secretary Ram Madhav, who was involved in negotiations with the PDP, made a presentation on the formation of the collation government in the border state to the executive members on the second day of its meeting here.
Justifying the alliance, the political resolution, adopted at the meeting, said a coalition was the only possible solution to provide a popular government to the people in the politically-sensitive state.
“We have formed a government with a coalition partner for the first time in J&K with 14 percent increase in our vote share,” the resolution observed.
The five-phased election in the state in November-December last year threw up a split verdict with the PDP winning 28 seats in the 87-member assembly, BHP netting 25, the National Conference 15, the Congress 12 and remaining 7 going to independents and smaller parties.
As no party secured a simple majority or was able to form the government, governor’s rule was declared on January 10, as the six-year term of the previous assembly was ending on January 19. After a 49-day spell, the PDP and BJP formed the coalition government on March 1 with PDP’s Mufti Mohammed Sayeed as chief minister and BJP’s Nirmal Singh as his deputy.