Gives PDP prez credit for party’s consolidation in JK
Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today put to rest growing speculation about the state’s command being handed over to PDP president and his daughter Mehbooba Mufti by saying that it was the party’s job to decide the matter.
He said the decision to hand over power to Mehbooba was not “an issue at this point of time” but, in the same breath, he showered praise on her for the party’s consolidation in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Coming of Mehbooba Mufti (as Chief Minister) is a part of democracy. She works in the field while I only give speeches and sit in the office. Whatever consolidation we have done, it is not because of me. It is due to her efforts. She won elections from Bijbehra because of her efforts. This will be the party’s job (to decide about her as the next Chief Minister). “‘Yeh aa jayega, woh aa jayega’… that is not an issue as of now,” Mufti told reporters at his official residence this morning.
Mufti said Mehbooba was in constant touch with people of the state and it was due to her deliberations that the PDP had won the trust of the people of the Jammu region also.
“In the past eight months, I remained busy with administration functioning and could not even communicate with my party workers but she (Mehbooba) has good liasioning and rapport with masses on the ground,” the Chief Minister said.
There have been speculations in political and administrative corridors for the past few months that Mehbooba would replace her father and get elevated as the next and first woman Chief Minister of the sensitive state of J&K.
Besides, an open revolt by two senior leaders of the party and Lok Sabha members, Muzaffar Hussain Beig and Tariq Hameed Karra, who were out in the public against the PDP-BJP alliance in the state, fuelled the rumours of Mufti handing over power to Mehbooba. The two leaders did not attend the public rally addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Srinagar on November 7.
Beig was the Deputy Chief Minister during the PDP-Congress coalition government headed by Ghulam Nabi Azad from 2005 to 2008, while Karra was the Finance Minister.
