Mehbooba Mufti still not decided on govt

Uncertainty grew over government formation on Sunday with a tough-talking PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti saying she will take a call after “reassessing” whether ally BJP’s government at the Centre would take substantive steps in a “set timeframe” to address the “core” political and economic issues of the state.

Mehbooba, who is seen as the successor to her late father as chief minister, told a four-hour long meeting with party leaders, including MPs, MLAs, zonal presidents and block presidents, that Mufti Sayeed had taken “a courageous, although unpopular, decision of aligning with the BJP with the hope that Narendra Modi at the Centre will take decisive measures to address the core political and economic issues concerning Jammu and Kashmir and its people.”

However, “instead of partnering with and implementing Sayeed’s vision of bringing peace, stability and prosperity to J-K, certain quarters, both within the state and in New Delhi, started overtly and covertly triggering frequent controversies over avoidable contentious issues resulting in wastage of the state government’s energies in firefighting and propitiation,” she said, slamming the ally.

“In such violative circumstances around, the party will have to reassess whether we can absorb the shocks which Sayeed had to do so frequently in his effort to forge reconciliation between the regions and the people of the state,” she said.

The PDP chief said during the 10-month coalition government headed by her late father, “there was little movement forward on implementation of political and economic initiatives.