Minutes after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pulled out of the ruling alliance with the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu and Kashmir, political parties, as well as leaders, including Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut, lambasted the saffron party for the "unholy and anti-national" deal.
"The PDP-BJP alliance was unholy, anti-national and just a trade-off for power. Our Jawans had to pay the price for it. The BJP has withdrawn only to avoid answering to the public during the Lok Sabha elections 2019," Sanjay Raut said.
Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah, one of the vociferous critics of the state government, took to Twitter and said: "And so it has come to pass...."
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is already at loggerheads with the Centre over the current impasse in administrative work due to a strike called by the IAS officers, said the BJP had pulled out of Kashmir, after "ruining" it.
The Delhi CM also took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation drive, saying: "Didn't the BJP tell us that demonetisation had broken the back of terrorism in Kashmir? Then, what happened?”
Former Union Minister Rajeev Shukla hit out at the BJP, saying the party cannot “absolve itself from the responsibilities as a ruling partner” in the last three-and-a-half years just by breaking away from the alliance.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad hoped that the collapse of the BJP-PDP government will bring some relief to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, adding that the Congress was in no mood to form the government with Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP.
They (BJP) ruined Kashmir and have now pulled out, maximum number of civilian and army men died during these three years.Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress Leader
BJP MP Subramanian Swamy told The Quint that the saffron party had taken a gamble by forging an alliance with the PDP, but it didn't pay off.
From the outset, the BJP was in favour of working towards getting a majority in the state. We should have made a Hindu the chief minister of the state. The tradition of having only a Muslim as the chief minister of the state is wrong.Subramanian Swamy, BJP MP
Questioning Mehbooba Mufti's credibility, Swamy declared her a "failed CM". He also said that in December 1989, Mehbooba's sister Rubiya Saeed's abduction was a "drama" to get the terrorists released.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi held that both the BJP and the PDP were equally responsible for the current state of affairs in Jammu and Kashmir. He told CNN-News18 that he had “no sympathy” for the PDP.
This is very unfortunate. The BJP, however, cannot run away from failing to deliver. The BJP is equally responsible. They feel they are losing ground.Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM Chief
On 19 June, the BJP drew the curtains on its three-year-old alliance with the PDP in J&K, blaming the Mehbooba Mufti-led government for failing to maintain peace in the Valley.
Making the announcement, Ram Madhav, BJP's J&K in-charge, said that it was “time that the reins of power in the state be handed over to the governor".
(This is a developing story)
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