New Delhi: Even as the government on Monday modified Article 370, which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and moved a bill to bifurcate the state into two separate union territories, it received support in the Parliament from unlikely quarters, with staunch critics like Mayawati's BSP and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) backing the move.
Apart from BSP and AAP, fence-sitters like Naveen Patnaik's BJD, Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSRCP, Bodoland People's Front (BDF), TRS and TDP also supported the J&K Reorganisation Bill. NDA allies Shiv Sena, AIADMK and SAD also backed the government.
In an embarrassment for the BJP, its Bihar ally JD(U), which had also opposed the Triple Talaq Bill, staged a walkout as soon as Home Minister Amit Shah moved the resolution on Article 370 as also the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill 2019.