“We are caught between the devil and the deep sea,” People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Nayeem Akhter said. “All the alliances that are available put one in a Catch-22 situation.”
A senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionary in New Delhi shares the dilemma. “Allying with either the PDP or the National Conference is the first option. The second option is to sit in the Opposition. Either way, we will have a problem,” he said. The BJP parliamentary board that meets on Wednesday would assess the situation, but the party would not make the first move, a party source said.
Being the single largest party, the PDP is not short of choices. But choosing the BJP over the Congress or vice versa is not an easy decision to take. While multiple arithmetic possibilities are available, all options involve political complications. If winning a mandate seemed hard in Kashmir, forming a government is going to be even harder. In one possible scenario, the PDP (28 seats) could come together with the BJP (25 seats) to achieve more than the required 44 seats to form the government. But the two parties are separated by myriad differences in ideology, positions and the aspirations they represent.
“It will be difficult for us to justify this in the Jammu region,” said a BJP leader. “At the same time, if we have no share in power, those who voted for us would wonder what the point is in staying with us.” If the BJP forms a government with the NC, roping in Independents and Sajjad Lone’s People’s Conference, it would face a legitimacy crisis both in Jammu and the valley.
Published - December 24, 2014 02:31 am IST