what did mehbooba mufti say on the question of joining hands with congress nc

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday invited the National Conference and the Congress to form an alliance to contest the upcoming assembly elections if they agree to her offer to contest all 90 seats in the Union Territory. Releasing the PDP manifesto at a press conference in Srinagar, Mufti said the alliance between the NC and the Congress was based on seat sharing and not on any agenda. She said her party would not join any alliance if only seat sharing was negotiated.

Alliance and seat sharing are far-fetched. If the National Conference and the Congress are ready to adopt our agenda, we will say they should contest all the seats. We will follow them because, for me, solving the problem of Kashmir is more important than anything else. When we formed an alliance earlier, we had an agenda, when we formed an alliance with the BJP, we had an agenda which they agreed to. But the alliance between the NC and the Congress is not on the agenda. It is on seat sharing. We will not form any alliance in which there is only talk of seat sharing. Alliance should be on the agenda and our agenda is solving the problem of Jammu and Kashmir.

He said his party wanted to open the route to Sharda Peeth, a Hindu pilgrimage site in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), and called for talks with Pakistan for the restoration of cross-LoC trade, which India has suspended since 2019. Pakistan has downgraded its trade ties after India revoked Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. In the last assembly elections held in 2014, the BJP and the PDP had formed a coalition government with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed becoming the chief minister. After Sayeed’s death in January 2016, Mehbooba Mufti succeeded her father after a brief period of Governor’s rule.