Centre was wary of ‘rag tag’ coalition taking over

NEW DELHI: The Centre justified dissolution of the J&K assembly by saying the moves for government formation could have produced an unstable coalition completely inadequate for the security challenge facing the state.

Sources said the prospect of PDP legislator Altaf Bukhari, a Dubai-based billionaire businessman, leading a “rag tag” coalition in the sensitive state was not a very reassuring one, emphasising what they called serious divisions within both PDP and NC. Sources claimed Bukhari’s antecedents did not inspire such confidence as to let the Centre watch the manoeu- vres for his “coronation” from the sidelines. Perhaps, the legal opinion that anyone who took charge of the attempted coalition would have continued as caretaker CM also influenced the Centre’s decision. There were also indications of NC veteran Farooq Abdullah and his son, former CM Omar Abdullah, not being on the same page.