Form govt or break up with BJP, says Omar

Ruling out any possibility of an alliance with the BJP, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah on Sunday asked the PDP to be bold enough in breaking alliance with the saffron party if it was not ready to form the government.

“The PDP cannot keep the issue open-ended under the garb of Confidence Building Measures (CBMs), which even the coalition partner BJP doesn’t know, least to speak of the people,” Omar told mediapersons on the sideline of an event in Jammu.

He said there has to be a time-frame to announce the “so-called” CBMs as the people and the state were not going to wait forever. The PDP, Omar said, should fix a deadline and if no reply was forthcoming, they should tell the BJP straight away that the alliance is over and go to the people.

“We are also waiting for that…to go to the people,” said Omar, working president of opposition National Conference.

He also asked why the issue of CBMs was not raked up when Mufti was alive. “She (Mehbooba Mufti) didn’t remember the CBMs then,” he said.

“When alliance is intact and both the partners have numbers as well, where is the hitch in forming the government,” he asked, saying that the “Agenda of Alliance” had been formed by late Mufti Mohammed Sayeed before taking over as the chief minister.

Asked whether the PDP chief was scared of continuing alliance or facing the people, Omar said, “I would not like to comment on that but if she is a leader, she should lead and not follow. If she is not ready to lead the state with conviction, she should announce it and not keep the state guessing.”

On other options about government formation, Omar declared, “We have time and again made it clear that our doors to BJP are closed; we don’t want even to discuss this; we had closed our doors a year ago and these continue to be closed even today.”

He said his party was being told about the alliance with NDA during the times of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and said there was a huge difference between BJP of then and the BJP of now.