The political deadlock following State Assembly elections held in Jammu & Kashmir last December has finally been broken. On 25 February, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced the formation of an alliance, and a coalition government was sworn in on 1 March. The state had earlier been placed under governor's rule as no party was able to win a majority of the vote and attempts to form a coalition government proved difficult.
Though fractured mandates and coalition governments are a staple feature of J&K politics, the results of December's election provided a vexing set of strategic considerations for the two parties that gained the largest vote shares. The PDP and BJP hold oppositional values, and derive their mandates from separate regions of the state.
The PDP, which won 28 out of a total 87 seats in the Assembly, was understandably reticent to partner with the BJP. The PDP's campaign focused on keeping the BJP and its 'Mission 44+' from making inroads in the Valley, and highlighted the BJP's position on Article 370 and its barely-concealed antipathy towards religious minorities. The BJP won 25 seats, all of which came from the Jammu region. A PDP-BJP alliance is, in many ways, contradictory, and compromises each party's ideological moorings, despite the mutual attractiveness of stable government and a profuse flow of resources.
For the PDP, an alliance with the Congress or National Conference (NC) was no more enticing. A PDP-Congress combine had the potential to alienate voters throughout Jammu, where neither party derives significant support, while leaving an opening for a hawkish BJP opposition buttressed by the Centre. The NC, meanwhile, is the PDP's arch rival, making a coalition between the parties unlikely, unless both are confronted with an immediate existential threat.