The People's Democratic Party (PDP) MLA Abdul Majeed Padder on Saturday said 18 of the 28 PDP MLAs were "ready to join hands" with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). His statement provided fuel to speculations that rebel MLAs of the People's Democratic Party could form an alliance government with the saffron party in Jammu and Kashmir. 

Padder also hinted that the rebel MLAs had already sent feelers to the BJP regarding the same, the Times of India reported.  Although a few PDP MLAs have been vocal about their criticism of party chief and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti in recent times, Padder's comments mark the first time that a party MLA has publicly put forth the idea of dissenters forming the government along with the BJP. 

His comments came despite Mufti's public warning that a rebellion in her party could lead to an increase in incidents of terrorism in the Valley.  Speaking on this, Padder reportedly said, "When my leader late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed could go for an alliance with BJP, why can't we form government with BJP," the TOI reported. 

On Friday, Padder, along with four other lawmakers - three PDP MLAs and 2 MLCs - held a news conference and stated that their faction was the "real" PDP. They added that they had lost confidence in Mehbooba Mufti's leadership, DNA reported. 

A report by DNA also quoted him as saying, “Rest assured, don’t worry about the numbers. We have more numbers than required. You need 44 members and we have 51 members. There is no problem as far as numbers are concerned. You will soon get to know how much numbers we have." Padder represents Noorabad constituency in Kulgam district of south Kashmir. 

In the 87-member legislative assembly in Jammu and Kashmir, the magic number to form the government with simple majority stands at 44. The PDP is the single largest party with 28 members, whereas the BJP has 25 members. On the other hand, the National Conference has 15 MLAs, followed by 12 Congress members. The CPIM and PDP each have one member in the assembly, while the rest are independents.

Meanwhile, BJP sources to TOI confirmed that they had indeed received the “feelers” sent by the rebel PDP MLAs regarding the government formation. However, they added that saffron party felt that a spell of governor’s rule was needed in the state and the party was not interested in another stint in the state as of now.