Mufti Mohammad Sayeed could have formed a government with the help of the NC and the Congress but it chose to go with the BJP, which proved costly for the PDP.

The elections had witnessed an incredibly high turnout in Kashmir, with several people coming out to vote for the first time since 1987, just to keep the BJP from assuming power. The main beneficiary of this was the PDP, which had run a fiercely anti-BJP campaign.

But Mufti Sayeed squandered this mandate by aligning with the BJP. Many voters saw it as a betrayal comparable to the allegedly rigged election of 1987.

Mufti’s calculation was that if the Valley’s Muslims could accept his coalition with the Congress, which had a far more troubled relationship with the Valley, they would accept his alliance with the BJP as well. But Mufti erred in mistaking Modi’s BJP for Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s BJP.

The BJP under Modi was seen as being increasingly hostile towards Muslims and also followed a far more aggressive policy in Kashmir. This alienated several Kashmiris, particularly those aligned to the Jamaat-e-Islami, who may have tactically supported the PDP in the past.

Still the PDP managed to survive with Mufti appeasing New Delhi and Mehbooba trying to placate whatever remained of the PDP’s support base in the Valley.