Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary Ram Madhav’s separate meetings with the Peoples Conference chief Sajad Lone and independent MLA Engineer Rashid on Thursday sparked speculations of new alliances in J&K.
Mr. Madhav, however, ruled out any attempt at forming a government in J&K. “We have no interest in forming any alliance right now,” he said. “These are all rumours.”
The Centre’s point man for the previous Peoples Democratic Party-BJP government, also took objection to former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s “muscular policy” remark. “We pulled out because we felt Ms. Mufti could not take forward the governance agenda in J&K. We fail to understand the coinage of word “muscular policy.” She was head of the Unified Command (of all security agencies) as Chief Minister for three years. Security forces will continue to work as they did in the past,” said Mr. Madav.
“With J&K former ministers of BJP and PC (Sajjad Lone) in Srinagar discussing the roadmap for the State,” Mr. Madhav tweeted after a half-hour meeting with Mr. Lone at Srinagar’s Taj Vivanta hotel.
Mr. Madhav’s meeting was seen by many as a bid to cobble together a fresh alliance by reaching out to smaller parties, amid speculations that the dissident PDP group may join them too.
He also met MLA Rashid on Thursday morning. “I told Mr. Madhav that the BJP, being in power in New Delhi, should not run away from its responsibilities to find an everlasting resolution to Kashmir dispute,” Mr. Rashid said.
It was Mr. Madhav’s first visit to J&K since he announced the decision to pull out of the alliance.