Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Dissolution: Who said what

SRINAGAR, (PTK): The dissolution of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly by Governor Satya Pal Malik on Wednesday barely minutes after former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti confirmed the grand alliance with the National Conference (NC) and the Congress evoked several reactions from people across the political spectrum.

Taking to Twitter, Mufti on Wednesday announced the alliance with the two mainstream political parties, saying the PDP is faxing a letter to Governor Satya Pal Malik with the support of 56 candidates in the 87-member house. According to reports, PDP will lead the grand alliance in a bid to form the next government in the Governor-ruled state. The purpose behind this far-reaching realignment of political forces is to defend the Article 35A in the Supreme Court in January 2019. While the PDP has 29 seats in the state Assembly, the National Conference and the Congress have 15 and 12 respectively.

“In my twenty six year old career as a politician, I thought I had seen it all! But like they say never say never! Nevertheless, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to @OmarAbdullah and @Ambikasoni4 ji for helping us achieve the seemingly impossible. (sic),” tweeted Mufti. While National Conference’s Omar Abdullah in reply to Mufti’s tweet quipped, “And I never thought I’d be retweeting anything you said while agreeing with you. Politics truly is a strange world. Good luck for the battle ahead. Once again the wisdom of the people will prevail. (sic)”

In my twenty six year old career as a politician, I thought I had seen it all! But like they say never say never! Nevertheless, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to @OmarAbdullah and @Ambikasoni4 ji for helping us achieve the seemingly impossible. 1/4

— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) November 21, 2018

Welcoming the decision, the BJP’s state president Ravinder Raina sais, “BJP welcomes the decision taken by the J&K Governor. Once again, NC, Congress & PDP hatched a conspiracy in Jammu & Kashmir that would have done injustice to Jammu and Ladakh. Will they form alliance before elections?” and added that the party has called for an important meeting with all its MLAs on Thursday and they will decide the future course of action. “We wish that the Assembly elections in J&K should be conducted along with the Parliament elections,” he said.

Veteran Congress leader Kapil Sibal tweeted, “When a Governor brazenly plays politics under instructions ‘ Satya ‘ becomes a pawn in the hands of ‘ Asatya ‘ . BJP’s shameless power play in J&K recipe for disaster. (sic)”