Sources say Ms Mufti wants to meet with the BJP before she leaves for Delhi on February 22 to attend the budget session of Parliament.
Highlights
- Mehbooba Mufti agrees to J&K govt formation talks with BJP: Sources
- Mufti wants the agenda for J&K, agreed upon by the alliance, implemented
- PDP-BJP have been in a stalemate since Mufti Sayeed's death in January
After days of uncertainty over government formation in Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti has given the BJP a positive signal.
Ms Mufti has messaged her readiness to hold talks with BJP leader Ram Madhav any time this week.
The BJP's alliance with Ms Mufti is in limbo over the PDP leader's demand for time-bound confidence building measures and the implementing of the agenda of alliance that the two parties had agreed to when they joined hands to take power last year.
Mr Madhav was expected to visit Srinagar on Monday to meet Ms Mufti to try and end the stalemate between the alliance partners since the death of Ms Mufti's father and Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on January 7. Instead, he visited poll-bound Assam.
Sources told NDTV that on the BJP's request for a meeting, Ms Mufti conveyed that she was ready anytime after Monday, when the traditional 40th day prayer ceremony was held for her father. Local BJP leaders including former deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh visited the Muftis yesterday but there was no discussion on government formation.
Sources say Ms Mufti wants to meet with the BJP before she leaves for Delhi on February 22 to attend the budget session of Parliament. Ms Mufti is the parliamentarian representing the Anantnag constituency in south Kashmir.
The massive controversy at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University over an event held in support of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru may cause discomfort to Ms Mufti. The central government is facing opposition criticism over the arrest of a student on sedition charges, for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans at that event.
"(Mehbooba) is very uncomfortable at whatever is happening over the JNU event," a source told NDTV.
The PDP has a strong view on Afzal Guru's hanging and used it to target rival National Conference in the 2014 election. Days after the execution, Mr Saeed wrote a strongly worded letter to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding that Afzal's remains be handed over.
BJP sources insist that the JNU row will not affect the party's ties with the PDP.