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Media reports today said that a BJP-National Conference alliance may be in the works after a fractured mandate was delivered in J&K.
Multiple reports, citing sources, said that outgoing Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had met BJP President Amit Shah. Some even said Abdullah had met Arun Jaitley, who had been deputed by the BJP to oversee government formation in J&K.
BJP, however, denied reports that its leadership had held discussions with National Conference (NC). Party general secretary Ram Madhav tweeted, "News about BJP leaders meeting NC leadership in Delhi baseless".
Omar, who left for Srinagar after an overnight stay here, refused to be drawn into such speculation and said that he hasn't postponed his trip to London.
Asked about government formation after a hung verdict in the Assembly polls, Omar, who is working president of NC, said that his party's stand had been made clear when he had offered to support the rival PDP of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in this regard. That offer stood and it was for the PDP to take a call on it.
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PDP emerged as the single largest party with 28 seats in the 87-member Assembly followed by BJP with 25, all of them in Jammu region, and NC with 15 while Congress got 12 seats.
BJP had earlier said that it was keeping 'all options' open, and had deputed a two-member team led by senior leader Arun Jaitley to hold talks with the party's newly-elected MLAs in Jammu and Kashmir on possibility of forming government besides supervising election of their leader in the Assembly.
The decision was taken by BJP's Parliamentary Board, the highest decision-making body of the the party, which discussed the election results in Jammu and Kashmir. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party chief Amit Shah and other senior leaders.
