SRINAGAR
Cabinet is meeting Tuesday afternoon and the main thing on agenda is the Kashmir situation, informed sources said.
Prior to the meeting, however, the alliance partners are having separate meetings with their own members. Chief Minister Ms Mehbooba Mufti has invited all the cabinet members of her party to a quick meeting in her chambers.
The meeting is apparently taking place after the BJP had a similar meeting Monday evening.
The two parties that have been in power in J&K are witnessing serious situation since Monday when the BJP ensured that it bags three of the four berths in legislative council while as the understanding was that they will have two seats each. As per understanding, PDP was supposed to get a vote from Syed Bakir Ali (Zanskar) and one vote from a BJP lawmaker to ensure win of its candidate – Abdul Qayoom Dar.
Interestingly, Bakir voted for BJP. In yet another shock BJP lawmaker Parihar was asked by his party to wait for three hours and finally asked to vote for his party candidate Randhawa. This sent shock waves across PDP.
Within hours after BJP’s enforced defeat of the PDP, the party reacted. Bakir, who had earlier been appointed as Vice Chairperson of Workers Construction Board was removed, obviously with the minister of state status, he enjoyed. Interestingly, he had attended a meeting of the Board on Monday before he went to vote for the party. Before he polled against the PDP, insiders said, he had met the Chief Minister and sought a berth in her council of ministers.
It remains to be seen as if this issue will crop up in the cabinet. There is, however, a possibility of this issue going to the inter-party coordination committee. Sources said this issue could lead to a bigger problem.
However, the parties are likely to discuss Kashmir situation both the political part and the administrative part. The situation warranted a serious discussion after the people boycotted the polls on May 9 and later in the re-poll.
Both the parties have very strong ideological stands on Kashmir. While BJP is apparently supportive of a harsh approach to manage the separatist tendencies, PDP – given its main base, would like something on political front to break the barrier it has faced last week.