Express News Service
SRINAGAR: The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which had emerged as a strong political force in Jammu and Kashmir after its launch in 1998, has been considerably weakened by defections. While PDP chief and former CM Mehbooba Mufti was under detention after scrapping of Article 370, several leaders quit the PDP to join the Apni Party. The majority of leaders in the Apni Party, which was floated in March last year and is said to have tacit support of BJP, came from PDP including its founder Altaf Bukhari. The desertions started after the fall of PDP-BJP coalition government in June 2018.
The first to rebel was influential Shia leader and former minister Imran Ansari. He accused Mufti of turning the party into a family fiefdom. Later, Mufti’s close aide and former MLA Peerzada Mansoor, who was booked twice under PSA after his detention following Article 370 scrapping, senior leader Khurshid Alam , founding member and former MP Muzaffar Baig and his wife Safina Baig quit the party to join Peoples Conference.
Out of the 28 MLAs elected on PDP ticket to J&K Assembly in 2014, 18 have quit the party since the fall of PDP-BJP government. PDP leaders blame the Centre and J&K government for weakening the party in view of its stand on Article 370 revocation. Senior PDP leader Firdous Ahmed Tak said, “Some got unnerved by seeing greener pastures on the other side. But in the majority of cases, PDP leaders are being targeted.”
