File photo: Peoples Democratic Party spokesperson Naeem Akhtar.
Naeem Akhtar, a soft-spoken leader of Mehbooba Mufti's People's Democratic Party today delivered a tough message to the BJP, saying his party expects concrete action on an agenda for governance agreed upon last year, to continue an alliance in Jammu and Kashmir.
Mr Akhtar - a close confidant of both party president Mehbooba Mufti and her father Mufti Mohammad Saeed who died last week - told NDTV today, "An agenda of alliance was drafted...it has to be implemented," adding that the party was reviewing how much of "the common vision of PM and Mufti Sahab regarding J&K" had been taken forward.
Jammu and Kashmir is under temporary Governor's Rule as Ms Mufti, picked by the PDP to replace her father as chief minister, has refused to take oath just yet. The PDP has not explained the delay. A seven-day state mourning ended yesterday.
Mr Akhtar said Ms Mufti, 58, had as yet not called a party meeting to discuss government formation. Her father had after weeks of hard negotiation last year entered into an alliance with ideological opposite BJP, based on an "agenda of alliance."
BJP sources have dismissed Mr Akhtar message as his personal view. "This is not the PDP or Mehbooba's view. Some people have their own agenda. Let us wait for a formal meeting tomorrow. I believe these people will be admonished by Mehbooba personally," a senior BJP leader said.
Politically, the PDP-BJP alliance has been an uneasy one, with the two parties' traditional stands on many contentious issues at odds. "Mufti Sahab had stature that he could absorb this. The dilemma in the PDP is that in absence of such a towering leader can we actually just go and sit in the ministerial chairs and continue with the same thing?" Mr Naeem said.
After assembly elections threw up a fractured verdict the PDP, which had the most seats at 28 but was well short of 44, the number needed to form government, tied up with party number 2 the BJP to form government.
A meeting between Mehbooba Mufti and Sonia Gandhi, when the Congress president visited Srinagar to offer condolences for her father's death, sparked speculation on whether Ms Mufti would continue the alliance with the BJP.