Alliance with PDP on cards? Congress meet to discuss Jammu and Kashmir political crisis

The political circles in the Kashmir Valley were set abuzz after former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti arrived in Delhi on Friday night.
NEW DELHI: Top Congress leaders will be meeting in Delhi on Monday to discuss the political situation in Jammu and Kashmir after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew support from the government last week. The meeting will be held at former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s residence at 11:30 am on Monday. United Progressive Alliance chief Sonia Gandhi had in the past formed a committee on Kashmir under the chairmanship of Singh.
Senior party leaders Dr Karan Singh, P Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni were also a part of this committee. Talks for a possible alliance with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is also likely to be on cards at the meeting.
However, the Congress had on Sunday ruled out any alliance with the PDP for “now or in the future”. Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad had said that there was no question of any alliance with the PDP, which lost power in the state after the BJP withdrew support from the coalition government.
“There is no question, for now or in the future, of forging an alliance with the PDP,” Azad had said while denying having met any PDP leader.
The political circles in the Kashmir Valley were set abuzz after former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti arrived in Delhi on Friday night.
The PDP has 28 seats and the Congress has 12 in the 87-member state Assembly. A simple majority of 44 seats is required to form the government and some PDP members have been trying to seek the support of the CPI(M) and independent members.
The meeting on Monday is likely to focus on discussing the future strategy of the Congress in the state. It will be followed by a two-day conclave in Srinagar that will be attended by party leaders from all the three regions – Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir.
The BJP had pulled out of the alliance government last month, forcing Mehbooba Mufti to resign as the chief minister.
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief GA Mir has claimed that the BJP was making “desperate attempts” to “explore possibilities” to return to power in the state, days after pulling the plug on its alliance government with the PDP.