Sajad Lone and Mehbooba both stakes claim to form govt
Mehbooba emails claim to Governor, says 'unable' to reach Governor on fax and phone
Srinagar, Nov 21: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday evening staked claim for the government formation in Jammu and Kashmir through an emailed letter to Governor Satya Pal Malik.
"Have been trying to send this letter to Rajbhavan. Strangely the fax is not received. Tried to contact HE Governor on phone. Not available. Hope you see it @jandkgovernor," Mehbooba said in a tweet.
In the letter to Malik, Mehbooba wrote that the Congress and National Conference have decided to extend support to "our party" to form a government in the state.
"National Conference has a strength of 15 and Congress 12 MLAs. That takes our collective strength to 56," she said, in the letter.
Earlier in the day, Mehbooba Mufti said that the three parties - NC, Congress and PDP -- were joining hands to protect the special status of the state.
She said that her party, Congress and NC has set aside difference to protect Article 35-A and prevent horse-trading.
“The BJP had started engineering defections in other parties for furtherance of its political motives,” Mehbooba was quoted as having said by news agency KNS.
“…and we three parties -- NC, PDP and Congress -- have decided to come together setting aside our differences on some issues for protecting Article 35-A and stopping horse-trading amid tinkering with laws concerning political identity of J&K.”
Mehbooba, according to the report, said that the talks are on between Congress, NC and PDP.
She said the proposed alliance of the three parties would work for protecting Article 35-A and stop tinkering with the laws concerning the political identity of the state.
Replying to a question on the choice of Chief Minister, Mehbooba said, “PDP will discuss the issue with its legislators, senior leaders and even grass-root level workers and name the candidate with consensus for the position of chief minister. It will take some time.”
