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Is the party over for

Mehbooba Mufti?

Abandoned by several senior leaders, PDP is likely to fall loyalty to NC.
In 2014, the PDP came back even
apart as Mehbooba is trying hard to hold her flock together, more stronger, emerging as the larg-
reports riyaz wani est single party with 28 seats. But this
time, the party formed the government
n January 6, senior PDP situation looks grimmer for the PDP as with the ideologically anti-thetical BJP,
leader Javed Mustafa unlike the rival National Conference, it as the latter turned out to be the sec-
Mir quit the party, sixth is not a cadre based party. ond largest party with 25 seats. The BJP
major leader including The PDP was founded by the late had largely swept the Hindu majority
O the former finance minis- Mufti Mohammed Syed, Mehbooba’s Jammu region, making it an unavoid-
ter Haseeb Drabu, to do so ever since father, in 1999 amid growing public dis- able partner in the new ruling coalition
the Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved affection with the then ruling National for the state.
the Assembly on. Three of these lead- Conference. It won 16 seats in 2002 Though the coalition was formed
ers have joined Sajad Gani Lone led Assembly elections enabling it to form with the best of intentions, with the
People’s Conference and one National the government in alliance with the parties taking time to forge the Agen-
Conference while Mir is yet to decide Congress. The party was in power for da of Alliance which worked out their
his future course of action. political differences and outlined a plan
These successive exits have left the for development, it didn’t go well from
PDP, once a vaunted political force, the word go. In the first 100 days while
reeling and its leader Mehbooba Mufti The PDP is unlikely the political and ideological confronta-
struggling to hold her flock together. to find winning tion hurtled to the centre stage, almost
The situation for her has become more hobbling the government, the gov-
unenviable considering the state is replacements for the ernance too didn’t get much forrader.
heading into a possibly simultane- Also, while the BJP aggressively propa-
ous Parliament and Assembly polls in exited candidates. gated its ideological stance on the state,
May. And the party is unlikely to find More so, when the even initiating direct and indirect steps
winning replacements for the exited to execute it on the ground, the PDP
candidates. More so, when the lead- leaders who have didn’t appear to stand up to its partner.
ers who have left command a signifi- left command a But the biggest damage to the PDP’s
cant support base in their respective credibility was done by the extended
constituencies. significant 2016 unrest which broke out following
Though the PDP still has several support base the killing of the popular commander
strong leaders, the prevailing unpopu- Burhan Wani. Around 100 people were
larity of the party is going to make it killed, a significant number of them
an uphill task for them to retain their teenagers and more than a thousand
seats. There is every chance that the six years through a rotational arrange- were hit by pellets in their eyes, blind-
some more of them might be on their ment with the alliance partner, with the ing many of them partially or com-
way out. parties sharing the chief ministership pletely. Throughout the duration, then
This reduces the PDP to a small for three years each. Chief Minister Mehbooba — albeit,
group of leaders comprising Mehbooba The 2008 elections saw the party initially shaken and distraught —
and the loyalists including her fam- advancing its tally from 16 to 21 seats, appeared increasingly apathetic
ily members, some of them with little thereby cementing its standing as an towards killings, at times, making
to no constituency. This has raised a established political party. However, insensitive comments like that the
question mark over the future of the it’s probable second shy at power fell protesting youth who were killed or
PDP as a political force in the state. The through after the Congress switched blinded by the security forces “weren’t

Tehelka / 31 january 2019 32 www.Tehelka.com