SRINAGAR: Several key faces in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have quit the party or threatened to take the extreme step following being denied party tickets to contest the upcoming Assembly elections.
Party vice-president and former minister Abdur Rehman is reported to have voiced his displeasure over being asked to contest from Shangus-Anantnag East seat of south Kashmir instead of his home constituency Bijbehara where he was elected with handsome margins dour times from 1998 to 2014.
The PDP has decided to field party president Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter Iltija Mufti from Bijbehara, the seat which is regarded as fully secure for it. Former chief minister herself is reported to be adamant not to contest an Assembly election as long as Jammu and Kashmir remains a Union Territory.
PDP chief spokesperson Suhail Bukhari on Tuesday announced his decision to resign from the basic membership of the party “for I feel uncomfortable in the kind of atmosphere prevailing in the party.” He too was expecting a party ticket to contest from a constituency in Baramulla district which has been reportedly denied to him.
As the PDP issued its second list of constituency in-charges on Monday, several former MLAs and DDCs members have also been denied party tickets for joining the fray. At least, a dozen of them have formally announced to quit the party.
Former MLA Wachi constituency in southern Shopian district Ajaz Mir is reported to be under tremendous pressure from his supporters to leave the PDP following he was replaced by Mehbooba Mufti's former PA Ghulam Mohiddin. He has asked them time till Wednesday evening to decide.
Dr. Harbaksh Singh, a former DDC member from Tral (Pulwama), has after resigning from the PDP joined the Awami Itehad Party (AIP) led by incarcerated Abdul Rashid Sheikh alias Engineer Rashid, who defeated former chief minister and National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah by a margin of over two lakh votes from Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency.
Kashmir watchers say that the revolt in the PDP at the crucial time is set to dent the party further in the Assembly elections. In 2020, more than forty leaders and prominent workers of the PDP had quit and formed the J & K Apni Party which is led by former minister and business tycoon Altaf Bukhari. While the rebels had cited party president Ms. Mufti’s “dictatorial behaviour” as the main reason for their quitting the PDP, she and her loyalists had accused the Narendra Modi government of “hatching conspiracy to break our party after we resisted its decisions taken on August 5, 2019.” Ironically, the J&K Apni Party too is being deserted by its leaders and workers on the eve of the elections. On Tuesday, its vice president Zafar Iqbal Manhas announced his resignation from the party. He is likely to join the Congress. Some other political parties too have been caught in an “aaya ram, gaya ram” kind of situation ahead of the assembly polls.
