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Differences over Article 370, AFSPA 'ironed out', BJP, PDP seal J&K deal

Shri Mufti Mohammad Sayeed met PM @narendramodi. pic.twitter.com/PDOVLVhfJX — PMO India (@PMOIndia) February 27, 2015



NEW DELHI: PDP patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed on Friday met PM Narendra Modi to paper over any 'last-minute hitches' and give a final seal to the historic deal between PDP and BJP to form a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir."We reached a common ground for government in J&K after two months," Mufti Mohammed Sayeed told reporters after his meeting with the PM."The BJP got votes in Jammu and we got votes in Kashmir. Both parties should come together," Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said.The swearing-in ceremony will take place on March 1.Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also participate in the swearing-in ceremony, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said.Ahead of the meeting, leaders of both parties were busy fine-tuning ways of dealing with some of the sensitive issues and finding the right nuances to suit the two sides. Two such issues have to do with AFSPA and the route through which Hurriyat could be made stakeholders in the dialogue between Delhi and Srinagar.Mehbooba Mufti meets Amit Shah; BJP, PDP formally announce alliance in J&KPDP had insisted on the inclusion of Hurriyat in the dialogue as being part of the written text of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP), but BJP wanted to keep any reference to it out of the text though the party agreed on involving them. The compromise could be the word "stakeholders" being used to refer to the Hurriyat without any direct reference to it.While the BJP is unwilling to compromise its position on AFSPA, it is learnt to have accepted the PDP leadership's demand to include Hurriyat as part of the peace dialogue. The way out suggested by BJP leadership, according to sources, is that the Hurriyat leadership could take part in the dialogue process as invitees of the state government once it is formed while the Centre will not make the formal invitation.PDP and BJP have taken two long months to thrash out a CMP that would have "political value" so that it becomes a reference point for all future relations between Delhi and Srinagar. According to sources, it will not be a just a pact for chief ministership like the Rajiv Gandhi-Farooq Abdullah accord of 1985 and Indira Gandhi-Sheikh Abdullah deal of 1975. The only other "political accord" between Kashmir and New Delhi had been signed in 1952 between Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah that could not be operationalized and Abdullah was arrested within a year of signing it.Sayeed arrived in Delhi on Thursday evening to take the final step towards government formation that has been pending for two months since the J&K elections threw up a hung verdict in December. On his arrival, Sayeed said a Common Minimum Programme (CMP) is ready. Refusing to talk on contentious issues like Article 370 which gives special status to the state, he said, "I won't talk on the issues... it (CMP) will come in black and white and the entire public of the country will see what we are doing."The first public announcement of the alliance was made by PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and BJP President Amit Shah jointly after the two met in New Delhi on Tuesday.