Mehbooba Mufti should resign, says senior PDP leader; sets deadline

New Delhi: A senior PDP leader and Parliament Member Muzzafar Hussain Baig on Thursday suggested that Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti should consider resigning if she feels the 'Agenda of Alliance' between PDP and its ruling partner BJP is a "paper of fraud and not a paper of good faith".

Baig, a founder member of the PDP, expressed the hope that Mehbooba will be able to take control of the situation but cautioned her that in case she feels that the two "alliance partners are incompatible", she is left with only one option and that is to resign.

The PDP leader said he had no two opinions that their party president will live up to expectations and bring the situation in the restive Kashmir Valley under control.

However, "if she comes to a conclusion that she is not getting enough support and she cannot deliver on the promises that she made to the people, of course, the only course left for her will be to resign.

"In six months if there is no progress, it will be honourable for the chief minister to resign," Baig was quoted as saying to a TV channel.

"If this alliance does not work for inner contradictions, because we are incompatible and what we have on paper is a paper of fraud and not a paper of good faith...if she comes to that conclusion and she does not get the support she must resign in honour," Baig, who is in the national capital, told TV channels.

He said the PDP was suffering on the ground. "It is the worker at the ground level, the cadre that makes the party, they are losers any which way. We have not benefited them a bit, we have done nothing for our workers. We have not acted upon our common agenda of alliance. That is the real reason why we are in trouble today," he said.

Baig, who has been the Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister in the state, said the Centre was being shown a different view of the situation in the state. "It's a case of a General who has a broader view of the situation while the soldier at the ground has a different (view).

"Take the case of Hurriyat Conference. Too little attention has been given to them," he said and added that if the Centre feels they are not the stakeholders, keep them on the side and talk to Pakistan directly.

He said a sense of "disillusion" was running deep into party cadre but even in these tough times, "I have not heard a single responsible person saying that Mehbooba should resign because she has failed."

"My personal view is that when there is a challenge, when there is a strife and uprising, you should never resign. That time you should show your strength both as a human being and as a functionary of an Indian state, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, you should show your mettle, if you have any mettle.

"But once there is peace and still the alliance does not work, either for ideological reasons or administrative reasons or lack of agreement on implementing the Agenda of Alliance, that will be the right time to dissolve the government both for BJP and PDP but never run away when it is a difficult time," he said.