SRINAGAR — Mehbooba Mufti was forced by the then Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leaders to ally with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the government in 2016. She had no intention of joining the hands with BJP, this was stated by senior PDP leader Khursheed Aalam.
“I won’t absolve anyone, even I was among the leaders who were keen to form the government and pressurized Mehbooba Mufti, otherwise she was not willing to form the government with the BJP,” Aalam told the news agency KNT.
After the death of her father Mufti Muhammad Sayeed in 2016, Mehbooba Mufti did not want to form a government with the BJP and had put some conditions like getting back power projects, and land under the army and safeguarding special status but most of her colleagues pressurized her and some even threatened to split the party if she didn’t budge.
Mehbooba Mufti had herself clarified that she did not want to form a government with the BJP in 2016, but a potential split in her party forced her to do so. She had blamed some of the leaders, who have since quit the PDP, for forcing her hand by travelling to the headquarters of BJP’s ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in Nagpur to convey their readiness to break the party to form a government without her.
“Mehbooba Ji has not greed for power. Her objective is not the chair but to mitigate the suffering of people. The people of Kashmir have been suffering a lot. They are being psychologically troubled, intimidated, harassed, and cowed down. Mehbooba Ji wants to ease the sufferings of the people,” Khursheed Aalam said.
