Mehbooba re-elected as PDP President for 4th time

Srinagar: For the fourth consecutive time, Mehbooba Mufti was Thursday re-elected as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president.

Mufti was re-elected after the elections for the post of PDP president were held at the PDP headquarters in Srinagar.

PDP General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura proposed the name of Mehbooba for the post of president, which was seconded by former minister Abdul Gaffar Sofi while other leaders including PDP Vice President Abdul Rehman Veeri also voted in her favour, paving the way for her re-election as the PDP president for the 4th term in a row for three years.

All members of the Electoral College supported the nomination through a voice vote.

Addressing a gathering on the occasion, Mehbooba said, “For me, PDP is the dream of my father Mufti Muhammad Sayeed as he has put his blood and sweat into coming up with a viable alternative to the people.”

She said that Sayeed wanted J&K to have a complete democracy but the ‘broken democracy’ began in 1951 when the constituent assembly was not elected but selected.

“Mufti Sahab tried to come up with an alternative for J&K people. He never wanted the chair but a viable alternative to the people,” Mehbooba said. “As he was struggling to provide a viable alternative to the people, the Congress and NC alliance took place, which was a black day.”

She said what was done in 1987 was history now like PDP’s alliance with BJP.

Mehbooba also said that the PDP was not eyeing the chair, but its ultimate goal was to achieve the dream of the PDP founder Mufti Muhammad Sayeed.

“PDP is not against the country, but against the government policies and the party will continue to raise its voice,” she said.

She virtually launched her party’s campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and exhorted the party cadre to start to work right away to strengthen the organisation.

“Elections are not everything but these elections are important to get our strength back. Parliament elections are coming and you should get down to work right away,” she said in her address to the party workers.

She told the workers that the party had to repeat its performance of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections if they wanted to pay tributes to Mufti Muhammad Sayeed.

The election process was held simultaneously in Jammu, which was connected to the Srinagar office of the party via a video link.

While thanking the party leaders for reposing trust in her, Mehbooba said that the detractors of the PDP had only two things against her and her late father.

“The only criticism of Mufti (Muhammad Sayeed) Sahab was that he went with the BJP for government formation. His decision has been proved right as BJP would have wreaked havoc in J&K if he had not reined them in. The criticism against me is about my ‘toffee, milk’ remark (in 2016). I had said that as a mother. Had they listened to me, my daughter Insha would not have been blinded. She became a collateral in clashes between miscreants and security forces,” she said.

The former chief minister said her opponents had tried to find faults with her but had not found anything.

“So they will tell you about the ‘toffee, milk’ statement. Let me tell you that social media trolls will not decide the future. It is the people who have got relief during our tenure in power,” she said.

Mehbooba said today was accession day, which marks the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to the Union of India.

“I want to tell them that we had acceded to the idea of India where our identity will be protected. You have weakened that accession. You will realise this in time to come. I also want to say that you will have to return everything taken from us with interest, starting from what was snatched on August 5, 2019,” she said.