In an exclusive interview with HuffPost India, Molvi Imran Reza Ansari, a dissenter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and an MLA from Pattan, said that a new ‘third front’, reportedly being put up by the BJP, consisted of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference Sajad Lone.
“The new alliance will rally around Sajjad Lone. We have like-minded people who, when the time comes, will come out in support of the third front,” Ansari said to HPI. “Right now, we might be three MLAs but I assure you when the times comes we will have 23.”
“The BJP-PDP was an agenda of alliance based on common minimum programme (CMP) that was adopted by the the coalition government,” said Ansari as quoted by HPI. “Yet, Mehbooba Mufti, after the demise of Mufti sahab tried to bargain for more from the BJP which, in retrospect, was a major mistake on her part. We lost a great deal of time to work for the coalition as well as the people of Kashmir and what did she get at the end of it, nothing at all.”
Ansari said Mufti had surrounded herself with a coterie of advisers, and distanced herself from the party’s mass base.
“After she became the CM, she started to ignore suggestions, advice of mass leaders and instead relied on sycophants, family members and friends who haven’t fought any election,” Ansari said.
Lone had made his allegiances clear in November 2014, when he described Modi as a “great human being”.
“The PM is a great human being. I was pleasantly surprised with his down-to-earth personality, his vision about bringing in investments into the state,” Lone told reporters after he met the Prime Minister. “I could not make out whether I am talking to the PM or my older brother.”
Sofi Yosuf, the first ever BJP legislator from Kashmir and currently the deputy head of the party’s Kashmir unit, refuted the allegations levelled against his party but didn’t outrightly deny its association with Lone.
“Sajjad Lone has been our coalition partner and continues to be so. In the case of PDP, we made an alliance with them to respect the mandate of people from both Jammu and Kashmir, but Lone had a prior association with the BJP. We are not propping up a third front or putting pressure on Lone to become the chief minister. BJP does not betray its partners. In fact, Lone was given a ministerial birth instead of me. That is what BJP stands for. The cracks or splits in PDP is an internal matter of the party,” said Yosuf.
If Ansari’s claims are true, Lone stands a chance of becoming the chief minister of the state.
“There will be only one face in the third front,” Ansari said to HPI, when asked who would serve as the third front’s chief minister. “That will be of Sajjad Gani Lone”.
Earlier in July, sources told Kashmir Reader that the BJP was working on another alliance with Kashmiri legislators, with Sajjad Lone ‘playing a key role in the machinations’.
Rumors had risen after BJP National General Secretary Ram Madhav had met with Sajjad Lone. Sources had also quoted that the BJP had a new blueprint for government formation.
The PDP-BJP coalition collapsed in June with the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind imposing governor’s rule in the region. Former Governor, N N Vohra passed the baton recently to the new state Governor, Satya Pal Malik.
