Mehbooba Mufti is expected to come Delhi today and meet PM Modi. (File Photo)
The day after she reached out to arch rival Farooq Abdullah to protect Jammu and Kashmir's special status, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is expected to reach Delhi on Thursday to seek Prime Minister Narendra Modi's support in defending a constitutional provision that bars outsiders from owning property in the state. But a fresh petition filed in the Supreme Court has complained that Article 35A discriminated against women who are stripped of right to own property in the state if they marry someone from outside the state. Men do not lose the right to own property irrespective of who they marry.
The restriction on outsiders from buying property in Jammu and Kashmir was considered the cornerstone of the state's special status. It is a clause that the BJP - which is in power in alliance with Mehbooba Mufti-led Peoples Democratic Party, or PDP - has long demanded should be removed.
At a hearing last month, the NDA government's top law officer KK Venugopal told the Supreme Court that the centre favoured a larger debate on this contentious article. It was after this hearing that Chief Minister Mufti warned Delhi that no one would be left to shoulder the tricolour in the state if the special status was tampered with.
But as she prepares to stand up to the central government and the BJP, the embattled Chief Minister is also making sure that Kashmir speaks in one voice. On Wednesday, Mehbooba Mufti held a string of meetings with opposition leaders, beginning with former Chief Minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah.
"In our Jammu and Kashmir no outsider can buy land - This is our strength and we have to protect it. We should protect this. We should protect what we have," she declared soon after.
"If they try scrap article 35A, there will be far greater revolt and I wonder whether they (New Delhi) will be able to handle that," said Mr Abdullah. The National Conference, the largest party in the assembly, also called an all-party meeting of opposition leaders to discuss plans to go for a mass contact programme.
"All political parties should stand together in the interest of state and raise their voice for its protection" said GA Mir, Congress president in the state.
That the only major political party to have avoided taking a public stand on the constitutional provision is the PDP's ally BJP hasn't gone unnoticed. BJP leaders say they do not want to comment since the ball had already been set rolling in the Supreme Court and the issue is sub judice.
Political observers say the Chief Minister's outreach to the opposition had again exposed the serious fault lines within PDP-BJP alliance. Last month, when Kashmiri separatist leaders including Shabir Shah were arrested and bundled off to Delhi to face a terror funding case, Ms Mufti had made it clear that such administrative action would not help solve the problems in Kashmir and advocated dialogue with all stakeholders including the Hurriyat.