**Mehbooba Mufti meets PM Modi; orchestrated tug-of-war nears end**

Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti met Prime Minister Narendra Modi today morning, and said she was very satisfied with her meeting. It means that we can see a government led by Mehbooba, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a coalition partner, very soon in Jammu and Kashmir.
The meeting concludes over two months of uncertainty over government formation after Mufti Mohammed Sayeed passed away on January 7. Over the past two months, thePDP has demanded that the Centre do more for the state. The BJP has continued to maintain that it will not bend to any fresh demands but honour the ‘agenda for alliance’ negotiated between the two parties in March 2015.
The fresh demands have included asking the Army to vacate some of the areas in Kashmir. Last week, the Governor asked the Army to vacate four such areas. There have been other demands, including the PDP demanding that two hydel power projects be returned to the state. This has been met with a prime ministerial assurance that all demands will be viewed with sympathy.
However, the truth of the over two month long uncertainty is that it has helped both Mehbooba as well as the BJP to consolidate their positions in Kashmir and Jammu, respectively. The BJP-PDP war of nerves was less about issues involved and more about optics and sending the right message to their respective support bases.
Mehbooba, by seeming to resist the lure of power immediately after her father had passed away and coming across as uncompromising about the cause of the Valley, has emerged a stronger leader both in Kashmir and more crucially within her party. The standoff has helped her silence several influential party leaders who had favoured snapping of the alliance. She has also positioned herself as the true inheritor of her father’s legacy - somebody who will not compromise the cause of Kashmiriyat to remain in power.
But the BJP leadership in Jammu is also convinced that the party by seemingly not surrendering to Mehbooba’s demands has emerged stronger in the Hindu-dominated Jammu.
The uncertainty has been gradually escalated by both sides to give the impression that the alliance was on the brink, and is now finally being repaired to pave the way for the new government to be put in place. Neither the BJP nor PDP could have repeated their performance of the 2014 assembly elections if mid-term polls take place anytime soon.