Sources said the differences between the BJP and the PDP have deepened despite the meeting between the top leaders yesterday.
Highlights
- Mehbooba Mufti met BJP chief Amit Shah on Thursday
- 'The stalemate continues,' said BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav
- PDP insists BJP should give written assurance on its key demands
Negotiations on government formation in Jammu and Kashmir have hit a wall again, sources said on Friday, a day after Mehbooba Mufti of the People's Democratic Party or PDP met BJP chief Amit Shah and the parties indicated a thaw after a two-month freeze.
"The stalemate continues. At the time of chief minister Mufti Mohammad Saeed's death, the BJP had made it clear that the responsibility of government lies with the party (PDP) which has the chief ministerial post," said BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, the key interlocutor between the two parties, today.
To a question on the demands that the PDP has made to renew its partnership with the BJP, Mr Madhav said, "The Centre is always ready to look into the demands of a state government but meeting demands as a condition for government formation is not acceptable."
Source said the differences have deepened despite the meeting between the two top leaders yesterday over the PDP's insistence that the BJP, which rules at the Centre, give a written assurance that its demands will be met, key among those are two central hydro projects in Jammu and Kashmir be transferred to the state.
The BJP-led central government says such a transfer will make it vulnerable to similar demands from other states.
It is sticking to its guns but has also initiated steps to signal to the PDP that it's intentions are good and that once they partner in forming government in J&K again, other tenable demands will be seriously considered
Yesterday, the Army yielded to one of the crucial demands of the PDP, agreeing that its Northern Command would hand over land held by it in three places in the state.
The Centre has, through the Governor, also speeded up the disbursement of flood relief in the state.
It's been a battle of nerves since Chief Minister Saeed of the PDP died in early January, less than a year after he scripted an unlikely partnership with ideological opposite the BJP, with state elections throwing up a hung verdict.
His daughter Mehbooba has refused to take oath at the head of a PDP-BJP government.
The state assembly must meet at least once in a six-month period; on April 9 it will be six months since the assembly met.