Congress rules out coalition with PDP

Senior Congress leader and former state Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the question of an alliance with the PDP "does not arise"

The Congress on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of an alliance with the Peoples Democratic Alliance (PDP), making Governor's rule look imminent in Jammu and Kashmir after the BJP pulled out of the PDP-led coalition government.

Senior Congress leader and former state Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the question of an alliance with the PDP "does not arise". "Whatever has happened is good. People of Jammu and Kashmir will get some relief. They (BJP) ruined Kashmir and have now pulled out," he said. Blaming the BJP for "devastating" the state government, Azad said that the regional parties like the PDP and Nationalist Conference should have been "left to themselves" in cobbling up a coalition among themselves and form the government.

"We (Congress) had approached the PDP and I am glad that (NC leader) Omar (Abdullah) seconded the proposal of having a greater alliance of PDP-NC and Congress. The regional parties should have been left to themselves; they should have been given a choice to form a government. "They could have selected their own partner but the BJP government at the Centre did not allow them to do so and in these three years, the BJP and PDP have devastated the state government," he said.

Meanwhile, as the Governor's rule looked imminent in the state, senior Congress leader and former Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram hoped that the Centre would not resort to a "muscular" approach in the Valley.

"The muscular, militaristic policy was a disaster from Day One. Let us hope and pray that the muscular, militaristic policy does not come back under the guise of Governor's rule," he said in a tweet. "It is a relief that the opportunistic coalition has collapsed. The long-awaited break of the PDP-BJP coalition will be welcomed by all those who despaired that Kashmir may have been lost forever," he added.

Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala pointed out that in the last four years, 373 security personnel and 239 civilians have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir due to heightened militancy.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal pointed out that the Modi government had claimed that demonetisation in 2016 had broken the back of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir but that did not seem true. "Didn't BJP tell us that demonetisation had broken the back of terrorism in Kashmir? Then what happened?" he asked.

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