New Delhi: The first formal announcement of a PDP-BJP alliance government in Jammu and Kashmir was made by PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and BJP President Amit Shah who met in New Delhi to give final touches to the Common Minimum Programme (CMP).
This will be followed by a meeting between PDP patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, who is set to be the J&K Chief Minister, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday after which the CMP will be made public on Thursday, official sources said.
The swearing-in ceremony is likely to take place on March 1 with the date having been chosen keeping in mind that it is an "auspicious day".
After the 45-minute-long meeting between Mehbooba and Shah at the latter's residence here, both the party chiefs appeared before the media and made the announcement about the formation of the "popular" alliance government in the state.
"After several round of talks on different issues, there is near consensus on a CMP and very soon the people of J&K will have a popular alliance government of PDP and BJP," Shah said.
He said that the date and time of the government formation will be announced after Modi meets Sayeed.
"The meeting will be held shortly," he said, adding that both the parties will release the contents of the CMP thereafter.
"But I am happy that all obstacles in government formation have almost been removed," he said.
Without identifying the contentious issues between the two parties, Mehbooba said that the two parties have "fortunately" arrived at a consensus on crucial issues.
Terming the CMP as an "agenda for alliance", she said the coalition was not for "power sharing" but about winning the hearts and minds of the people in the state.
She termed her alliance different from other alliances of the past and said that "for the first time, the interests of the people of the state as well as national interest has been kept in mind".
The alliance provides an opportunity to end "alienation" of the people of the state from the rest of the country by giving them a development-oriented and corruption-free administration.
The key factors in the formulation of the alliance were development, aspiration, prosperity and peace for the people of J-K.
"I am happy that the two parties have adopted a middle path from which both, the state as well as the country, will benefit," Mehbooba said.
She was accompanied by party MP Muzzafar Hussain Baig to Shah's residence. While PDP handed over a bouquet to Shah, the BJP chief, in return, presented a shawl to Mehbooba.
While greeting Shah, Baig said in a lighter vein that, "I am coming from a state where swine flu is on the rise."
While PDP was trying to project this as a crucial meeting for sealing the deal, sources in the know of the developments said that everything had been finalised earlier and this meeting was only a courtesy call ahead of the Modi-Sayeed meeting.
This is the first time that the state has been without an elected government for this long after results for the state Assembly were announced on December 23. The verdict was highly -fractured with PDP emerging as the single-largest with 28 MLAs followed by BJP with 25 legislators. National Conference (NC) bagged 15 while Congress won 12 seats.
Both parties have maintained that all issues, including differences over the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Article 370, have been sorted.
NC leaders have charged that the alliance between PDP and BJP "was a complete sell-out over the craving for power".
However, a comprehensive reaction would be shared by NC only after the CMP was released as party leaders said that they "want to read something in black and white".
While Sayeed will be Chief Minister for the entire six- year term, BJP's Nirmal Singh is likely to be Deputy Chief Minister, the sources said.
Sayeed had earlier headed a coalition government with Congress for three years from 2002.
Both parties have kept under wraps the details of the CMP, particularly with respect to Article 370 and AFSPA -- the two issues over which they have completely opposite views.
The CMP needs to be read in totality and not in bits and pieces, leaders from the two parties said.
The two sides are understood to have agreed on formation of a committee which will go into the AFSPA issue and suggest areas from where it could be revoked.
On Article 370, while BJP has given no written assurance as demanded by PDP, the CMP is expected to say that both parties will respect the aspirations of the people of the state within the Constitution, the sources indicated.
The proposed CMP may also touch upon the issue of more than 25,000 families of West Pakistani refugees by terming it a humanitarian issue.
According to sources, the portfolios have also been finalised with PDP likely to walk away with Home and Finance while BJP is expected to get Tourism and Water Resources, Public Health Engineering and Planning.
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