Mehbooba Mufti walks out of Cabinet Meeting after rift with BJP ministers

Mangalore Today News Network

Srinagar, Dec 10 , 2016 :  In a first major rift within the ruling alliance in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti walked out of a cabinet meeting today over differences with BJP ministers.

 

The dispute cropped up over the issue of restructuring of Kashmir Police Services or KPS.

Ms Mufti, 57, got furious after BJP ministers including deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh objected to the proposal of KPS restructuring. As she left the meeting midway, BJP ministers convened a meeting in the office of the deputy chief minister.

Sources say to avoid any major confrontation over the issue, a group of BJP ministers rushed to the Chief Minister’s residence to meet Ms Mufti.

Jammu and Kashmir is co-governed by Ms Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party and the BJP. The alliance was formed after the 2014 assembly election when the state had voted in a hung assembly with no party getting a majority. Ms Mufti’s father, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed became the chief minister after weeks of negotiations over the alliance between the ideological opposites PDP and the BJP.

When Mr Mufti died in January, his daughter did not commit to the alliance for three months. When she finally agreed to take his place as chief minister, she made the implementation of the alliance of agenda a key deliverable for the partnership.