Mehbooba Mufti says coalition governments are more efficient in J&K

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti Tuesday said coalition governments deliver better results than single-party majority regimes, citing the example of the BJP-led government at the Centre. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president was reacting to National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah's statement asking people of Jammu and Kashmir to give a clear mandate to any one party. "Brute majority has had a history of sellouts in JK. With 60 members NC sold out powerhouses, brought Ikhwan, task force, POTA," Mehbooba tweeted.

"Even earlier when NC had an absolute majority and unqualified political mandate it only yielded powers, resources of the state to Centre," she said. The former chief minister further said the coalition led by her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in the state had established "a high bar of achievements -- the opening of cross LOC roads (being) the singular political achievement post-independence". She said post-Indira Gandhi era, coalition governments had delivered better results than a single-party rule.

"Even at the national level it seems post-Indira Gandhi, coalition governments have delivered better than majority party rule e.g, Vajpayee coalition, UPA-1 compared to present BJP single-party rule," she said. "Recall Narisimarao (sic) minority government which brought the country out of it's worst economic crisis and introduced economic liberalisation," she added in the tweet. Speaking at a function in Jammu on Monday, Abdullah had said that "experiment of coalitions" had not worked well in J-K.

"I want people of the state to elect a single party government in Jammu and Kashmir, keeping in view the challenges and magnitude of problems faced by the people," he had said. However, Mehbooba's finance minister Altaf Bukhari-- who does not associate himself with the PDP anymore-- supported Omar's call for the return of one-party rule in the state. "I personally believe that Kashmir has suffered a lot because of coalition politics that started since 2002. The results of coming assembly elections shall have a huge bearing on the stability and all-round development of the state," Bukhari said in a statement.

"I leave it to the conscience of people to choose and vote for any political party of their choice that can safeguard the state's socio-political interests and deliver the best", the former MLA from Amirakadal said. Bukhari further said that coalition politics results in a chaotic atmosphere and more often leads to "unstable governments that hugely affect the policy making and decisions of government".

(With inputs from agencies.)