SRINAGAR: Several PDP leaders and legislators are building pressure on the party president, Mehbooba Mufti, to take a call on the government formation in J&K, arguing that the deadlock was hurting the party politically, party sources said.

A senior party leader who was the minister in the previous PDP-BJP government said they have conveyed to Mehbooba that the credit for some of the key policy issues visualised under the previous PDP-BJP government has gone to Governor NN Vohra which doesn't show the party in good light among the people.

Backed by New Delhi, the Governor NN Vohra has announced several pro-people measures in the past two months, prominent among them the release of flood relIef to people, increase in allocation of ration under the newly implemented National Food Security Act (NFSA), allocation of funds for dredging of River Jhelum to increase its carrying capacity, besides others.

"During his tenure Mufti Sahab had been relentlessly pursuing these issues with Centre and it was our commitment to people to provide succour to them on all these fronts. Now we see Raj Bhavan taking credit for all the measures that were visualised by our party," said another PDP leader and former minister.

Syed Altaf Bukhari, former public works minister and a close aide of Muftis, last week thanked the Governor for raising the quota under NFSA, “I am grateful (to Governor) for his personal intervention into this sensitive issue as the Late Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was aware of these grievances and had envisioned a redressal mechanism to make adequate availability of ration at subsidized prices to the public,” Bukhari said.

Political experts in the Valley see the "sudden overdrive" by Raj Bhavan to take decision on the issues concerning people as a tactic by New Delhi to pressurise Mehbooba to take decision on the government formation.

The PDP leader said they have conveyed to the party leadership to form a committee that would take a call on continuing the alliance with the BJP or going for the fresh elections in the state. "The silence on part of the party leadership is creating doubts in the minds of our supporters and cadre," said the PDP leader.

According to sources, some party leaders are also against the idea of snapping the ties with the Hindu rightwing party as they believe that the party will not be able to preserve its vote-bank in the eventuality of midterm polls due to the "highly unpopular" nature of PDP-BJP's ten month rule in the state which had tanked PDP's popularity in the state.

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