PDP-BJP coalition has not made a good beginning: Baig

Senior PDP leader and Lok Sabha MP Muzaffar Hussain Baig said today that the PDP-BJP coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir had not made a promising beginning with controversy erupting due to statements on both sides.
A day after PDP patron and new Chief Minister of the state Mufti Mohammed Sayeed stirred a controversy by giving credit to Pakistan, Hurriyat and militant outfits for peaceful elections in the state which was rebutted by BJP, Baig said here, "it is not a promising beginning but I am still hopeful".
Baig, a former Deputy Chief Minister, said, "in the last 24 hours, some statements on both sides (PDP-BJP) have created confusion".

He said that he would have preferred a clear cut statement on part of the two parties in their Common Minimum Programme (CMP) about talks with Pakistan and Hurriyat and revocation of Armed Forces Special Powers Act."
"Let people decide whether the clauses in CMP on these issues are clear cut or whether they are capable of two different meanings, one that suits BJP and another that suits PDP. I would have preferred a clearcut statement and more clarity on these issues," he told PTI here.
Baig said that coalition government should be based on a "good faith agreement and not on compromise".

Emphasising that he was not speaking out of any personal interest, Baig said he had written to Sayeed on December 27 stating that he had no personal agenda.

He had also sent his letter of resignation from Parliament to Sayeed for being forwarded to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan if he so desired.
Recalling the events since the results of the Assembly polls were declared on December 23, Baig said that given the hung arithmetic of the verdict, a PDP-Congress government or a BJP-National Conference government would not have been stable.
Given the numbers, BJP and PDP would have provided a stable government provided it was based on "good faith agreement", he said.