Drabu without PDP means nothing to us: BJP

New Delhi, Mar 17: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has conveyed to its state leadership that sacking J&K’s former Finance Minister, Dr Haseeb Drabu was an internal matter of its ally PDP and that the BJP Ministers and state leadership should treat Drabu’s sacking as a closed chapter.
Top sources in New Delhi say that BJP leadership has conveyed both to its leaders as well as the PDP that Drabu’s sacking would not cause any stress to the relationship between PDP and BJP and that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP Chief Amit Shah valued the relationship with PDP and Muftis more than anything else.
That BJP has decided to keep a distance from Drabu post his sacking was evident when Ram Madhav landed in Jammu and kept away from the sacked Finance Minister.
Sources in the BJP say that Madhav was told by BJP top brass to stay away from Drabu as they did not want another ally trouble after TDP and that PDP-BJP alliance mattered more than anything else.
“We must remember that both Mufti sahib and Mehbooba ji took us partners despite huge opposition from every quarter. We value and cherish that step. PDP is the only the real Muslim ally we have got. Drabu or no Drabu, our relationship with PDP is more important,” a senior BJP leader told The Kashmir Monitor over the phone from New Delhi.
Though initially after Drabu’s sacking there were some rumours of a strain on alliance, everything seems to have cooled off after Ram Madhav met Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in Jammu on Friday evening.
During the day on Friday, the Chief Minister had also unveiled Maharaja Hari Singh’s statue in Jammu along with Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh.
The Chief Ministers presence at the statue unveiling is being seen by many as signal that ‘North Pole South Pole alliance is intact.
“We now have very strong reasons to believe that the alliance is stronger after Drabu’s exit. Not only did he put spanners in PDP Ministers function but he caused a lot of grief to BJP Ministers as well, especially in Power and PHE Ministries. With him gone we expect things to flow more smoothly,” said a top PDP leader.