The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Peoples Democratic Party seem set to form the new government in Jammu and Kashmir as the two parties have almost finalised the common minimum programme and sorted out the contentious issues.
“If all goes well we will have a new government in place by end of this week,” said a senior PDP leader.
He said that party president Mehbooba Mufti is visiting Delhi on Sunday to meet the top leadership of the BJP to give final shape to the understanding reached between the two parties, following which formation of the new government would be announced.
He also said that the coalition government will be headed by PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed for the entire six years with a BJP nominee as the deputy chief minister.
Sources said that Mufti is also scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 23 or 24.
This will be for the first time that a Kashmir centric party and the BJP join hands to form a new government and second time for Mufti to head a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir.
In 2002, Mufti headed the PDP-Congress coalition government for the first three years while Ghulam Nabi Azad headed it for rest of the term.
The elections held in December 2014 threw a fractured mandate with the PDP getting 28 seats and the BJP 25 in the 87 member state assembly. The National Conference got 15 seats, while the Congress got only 12.
The NC and the Congress had offered support to the PDP for formation of the government in the state which, however, but was not accepted. Sources said that the new government is likely to be sworn in either on Thursday or Friday.
