BJP says ‘inexperienced’ Mehbooba ‘befooling’ people

Srinagar, July 31: War of words between former coalition partners—PDP and BJP—has intensified, with them targeting each other over “misgovernance” during their regime.

The alliance ended on June 19, after BJP withdrew its support to the coalition formed in 2015.

A day after the former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti, said aligning with BJP was like “drinking poison”, the rightwing party hit back on Tuesday, saying she was “inexperienced” to head the state and was “fooling the people of Jammu and Kashmir”.

“Mehbooba could not deliver as chief minister, as she was inexperienced. A few leaders of her party did not let her work. She was soft towards separatists and wanted to register an FIR against army man in Shopian incident,” BJP’s State President, Ravinder Raina, told the media.

Criticising Mehbooba for her statement, Raina asked, “Why did she not realise it since 2016? She would praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, and other union ministers for providing all possible help to the state. She is upset after losing power.”

He asked Mehbooba to stop threatening New Delhi with a repeat of 1987 in case of a split in PDP.

“She shall set her house in order instead of blaming others. The BJP will form own government and will have its own chief minister,” he claimed.

Over Mehbooba’s claim that there was no discrimination with Jammu, Raina said, “Prime Minister announced Rs 80,000-crore package for JK, but her government failed to start developmental projects in Jammu. She has been delaying municipal polls.”

For the last few days, Mehbooba has been targeting the BJP government at the centre for failing to stop bloodshed in the valley.

On Monday, she claimed that as CM she had to fight with Modi government for implementation of Agenda of Alliance (AoA) framed by PDP and BJP for running coalition government in the state.

She claimed that Modi government did not show any interest in holding talks with Pakistan.

She has been making efforts to keep her flock of 28 legislators together. However, the disgruntled leaders have been staying away from party activities.

The rebellion has led to speculations that BJP was working behind the scene to cobble up a requisite 44 seats to form a new government in the state.

The PDP has 28 members, the BJP 25, National Conference 15, Congress 12, Peoples Conference two, and there are five independent legislators.