Meeting with PM Modi is positive: Mehbooba Mufti

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday in a renewed bid to break the deadlock over government formation in Jammu and Kashmir.

The meeting at the PM’s 7 Race Course Road residence is said to be the final step to reconciliation between the BJP and the PDP. “It was a good and positive meeting. I am satisfied now,” she told reporters after the meeting.

The PDP chief has called a meeting of her legislature party on Thursday to elect a new leader and discuss the government formation. The ideologically opposite parties had forged an alliance in March last year and ruled the state for 10 months until the death of chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on



January 7.

Governor’s rule was imposed in J&K on January 8 and since then both the PDP and BJP have been negotiating new terms of engagement.

Mehbooba, 56, wants firm assurances from the NDA government on transfer of central power projects to J&K and time-bound implementation of the ‘Agenda for Alliance’, a governance framework established by the two sides.

The PDP chief, tipped to take over the reins of the coalition government, returned to Srinagar amid reports that her talks with BJP president Amit Shah had failed.

That was Saturday. Two days later, she returned to the national capital to give a final push to government formation in a meeting with the PM.