J&K Elections: Mehbooba Mufti Offers Support To Congress-NC Coalition On One Condition

Mehbooba Mufti, the president of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), has said that her party will not form an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections.

Instead, Mufti said that the PDP would extend complete support to the Congress-National Conference (NC) alliance if they accept the PDP's agenda, which includes the resolution of the Kashmir issue and the opening of routes.

Mufti ruled out an alliance with the Congress and NC if it is only based on seat-sharing. "Forget about alliance and seat-sharing, if the Congress and the National Conference (NC) are ready to accept our agenda -- that resolution of the Kashmir issue is necessary and on opening of routes -- we will tell them to contest on all the seats and we will follow you," she said.

"Because, for me, the resolution of the Kashmir problem is much more important than anything else," she added when asked if the Congress had approached the PDP for an alliance.

"Whether you give me three or four seats, it does not mean anything to me. When we entered into an alliance with either the Congress or the BJP, it was on our agenda. The NC and the Congress have not entered into an alliance on any agenda but for seat-sharing and we will not talk of such an alliance, which only talks about seat-sharing," she said.

NC chief Farooq Abdullah earlier announced a pre-poll alliance with the Congress for the first assembly election since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.

Asked if there could be a post-poll alliance between the PDP and the BJP, Mehbooba said, "There is nothing like that. We had joined hands with the BJP government and not the party and we had put a condition that they would not touch Article 370."

The PDP released its manifesto for the assembly elections, promising to pursue the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood and advocate for diplomatic initiatives between India and Pakistan.

It also aims to establish full connectivity across the Line of Control for trade and social exchange. The manifesto also talks about striving for the revocation of the Public Safety Act (PSA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) as well as its commitment to revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).

Polls to the 90-member assembly will be held in three phases -- September 18, September 25 and October 1. The counting of votes will be held on October 4.

Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir were last held in November 2014, resulting in the PDP and the BJP forming a coalition government led by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.

(With agency inputs)