True to late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s words that PDP-BJP tie-up was an alliance of North Pole and South Pole, it was rocked by serious differences on a number of occasions ever since its formation before finally crumbling today.
It took the PDP and BJP top brass nearly two months to cobble up the Alliance and form ‘Agenda of Alliance’. While Assembly election results were declared on December 23, 2014, Sayeed was sworn-in as the Chief Minister heading first-ever PDP-BJP coalition Government on March 1, 2015.
As Sayeed passed away on January 7, 2016, the Alliance again ran into trouble as her daughter and PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti deciding not to form the next Government in a hurry. It took Mehbooba nearly three months to revive Alliance and the two parties again formed the Government on April 4, 2016 with Mehbooba as the Chief Minister.
Not only outside but even inside the Assembly, the Alliance ran into serious trouble in 2017 budget session when then Speaker Kavinder Gupta expunging remarks of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Article 370. The issue snowballed into a major controversy and Gupta had to adjourn the House sine die abruptly.
Few months back, a controversial notification of Tribal Affairs Ministry on nomads and Rassana rape-cum-murder of minor became two major issues on which both the parties were at loggerheads. While the Tribal Affairs Ministry order was kept in abeyance, two BJP Ministers-Choudhary Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga had to resign over Rassana issue.
The election of BJP leader Vikram Randhawa as MLC had also become bone of contention between the two Alliance partners as he had won at the cost of PDP nominee. For this, the PDP didn’t allow BJP leader Virenderjeet Singh to join as Vice Chairman of Police Housing Corporation.
A number of times, the two parties were at loggerheads in the Cabinet meetings. The land bill was twice blocked by the BJP in the Cabinet. The Rehabilitation Policy for the militants brought by the PDP was also blocked by the BJP in the Cabinet.
There were number of other issues on which the two parties differed.