India ruling party enters coalition in Kashmir
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kashmir's incoming chief minister have held a meeting after they finalized a deal on forming a coalition government in the Muslim-dominated region.
Modi and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who leads the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) met on Friday to discuss the final arrangements for the establishment of a coalition government in the Jammu and Kashmir region.
The 90-minute meeting which took place in the Indian capital of New Delhi was the final touch on the deal already reached between PDP and Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of a Sunday swearing-in in Jammu, the Himalayan region's winter capital.
The deal could see Modi’s Hindu nationalists enter a government in the Muslim-majority state for the first time.
“This is a historic opportunity to unite hearts and minds of the people in the state,” Sayeed (pictured below), who will be the new chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said after the meeting.
The inauguration on Sunday comes nearly two months after the elections for the state assembly which was marred by deadly attacks across the region. The disputed territory, which has been hit by violence and bloodshed for decades, is claimed by India and Pakistan with each controlling a part of it.
BJP won 25 out of the 87 seats in the elections to the assembly while PDP took 28 seats, giving it the upper hand in the coalition government. Most of the votes for BJP came in the Hindu-majority valley of Jammu.
One of the main conditions set by PDP to enter the coalition has been the abolition of a controversial law which allows New Delhi immense powers to search, transgress on property and shoot. Human rights activists have long contested the law which, according to them, is a cover-up for India’s repeated violations of rights.
Former chief minister Omar Abdullah and his National Conference Party were sidelined after they refused to remain at the helm of the state in January, prompting New Delhi to place the area under its direct rule.
MS/NN/HMV
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