BJP seeks time to respond to Mehbooba's conditions

Jammu, Feb 2: With PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti setting conditions for government formation in Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP on Tuesday sought 8 to 10 days time from Governor N.N.Vohra to respond.

A three-member Bharatiya Janata Party team including state president Satpal Sharma, former deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh and Lok Sabha member Jugal Kishore called on Vohra at the Raj Bhavan for discussions.

"Following conditions set by PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti over government formation in the state, we have sought eight to 10 days time from the governor to respond to these conditions," BJP sources told IANS.

Meanwhile, media reports quoted party general secretary Ram Madhav as saying there were no new conditions and there should no new conditions.

Earlier, Mehbooba Mufti told reporters after meeting Vohra that her father had not shaken hands with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but with millions of people who had elected Modi while forming an alliance with the BJP in the state.

"The situation is not the same after the vacuum created by Mufti Sahib's death. I don't have the goodwill, or the vision and experience of my father to run the government as he did during the ten months he remained in power.

"I am not setting any conditions to continue the alliance, but the centre has to create the right environment by taking confidence building measures to give a fillip to the new government in the state," she said.

Vohra had called both the PDP and the BJP to know their viewpoints on government formation in the state, which has been without a government since Sayeed's death on January 7, and has been placed under governor's rule.

Given the stand of the PDP president, it seems unlikely that any new government would take office in the state in near future.

IANS