Delhi 24 Feb: People’s Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti met BJP president Amit Shah in New Delhi on Tuesday to seal their deal on a Common Minimum Programme adopted by the two parties ahead of the formation of the government in Jammu and Kashmir.
Earlier on Tuesday, sources in the BJP and the PDP said they have finalised their deal over the coalition government they will now lead in Jammu and Kashmir, two months after the state threw a fractured verdict. Sources in the two parties said the next government, to be headed by PDP veteran Mufti Mohammed Sayeed with the BJP’s Nirmal Singh as his deputy, will be sworn in at Jammu University’s Zoravar Auditorium on March 1.
Six other MLAs from the two parties are expected to form the 14-member Cabinet which will be sworn in next week. The PDP leaders likely to be sworn in are former Minister of State for Home Abdul Rehamn Veeri, PDP spokesperson Naeem Akhtar, treasurer Altaf Bukhari, chief negotiator with the BJP Dr Haseeb Drabu, Zulfikar Choudhary and Abdul Haq. The names from the BJP doing the rounds are Bali Bhagat, Chowdhary Lal Singh, Sham Choudhary, Abdul Gani Kohli, Kavinder Gupta and Sunil Sharma.
The deal reached on Tuesday ended a two month-long negotiation between the two parties to iron out their differences over contentious issues like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Article 370 of the Indian Constitution which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir.