BJP on Thursday made it clear it will go with the PDP’s choice for the post of Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, clearing the decks for Mehbooba Mufti to take over the reins of the state following her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s death.
“It is for PDP to decide who will be their leader,” BJP vice president and its Jammu and Kashmir in-charge Avinash Rai Khanna told PTI when asked about his party’s stand on Mehbooba succeeding her father, who died earlier in the day at New Delhi’s AIIMS.
“Our alliance is with PDP,” Rai added, indicating it was the coalition’s senior ally’s prerogative to choose the leader for the top job.
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On Rajnath Singh’s advice, BJP legislators held a meeting at Hari Niwas guesthouse on and decided to unanimously support Mufti’s nomination as Chief Minister.
Later, PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig and Governor Narendra Nath Vohra met briefly at Srinagar airport. They were, sources said, unanimous that Governor’s rule would have to be imposed in case the new Chief Minister could not be sworn in by 4.00 pm Friday.
56-years-old Mehbooba, who is the PDP’s president, has had her share of detractors in the saffron ranks for several reasons, including her passionate espousal of her party’s ‘self-rule’ concept, which used to be dubbed “as soft separatism” by many in the BJP.
Sources said the sudden death of Sayeed leaves BJP with little choice but to go with his obvious successor.
Mehbooba Mufti on Friday will resign as Member of Parliament before taking charge as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
Sources add that due to the untimely demise of her father, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, she is not comfortable to take oath during the four-days of mourning, though her aides are persuading.
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If there is no clear decision made today, it is likely that the state will see another Governor’s rule for three days said a Constitutional expert.