Mehbooba set to be first woman CM

Ehsan Fazili

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, January 7

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti is all set to be the first woman Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of demise of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who breathed his last at AIIMS in New Delhi this morning.

The PDP had already made it clear that there was consensus within the party on Mehbooba becoming the Chief Minister of the state.

“There is complete consensus in the party on Mehbooba because she is the right leader. She represents the aspirations of the cadre and is an undisputed leader,” said senior party leader and minister Naeem Akhter.

That Mehbooba would take over as Chief Minister was, in fact, first indicated by Mufti earlier when he had described his daughter as a “grassroots leader” for making party consolidation possible in the state, particularly in the Kashmir valley.

Mehbooba (57), belonging to one of the leading political families, had direct engagement with state politics after she was first elected to the state Assembly in 1996 on a Congress ticket. At present, she represents Anantnag in the Lok Sabha. This is her second term after her first election in 2004. She had been the face of the party ever since it was floated as an alternative regional party after the Muftis disassociated from the Congress in 1999.

Under the ‘Agenda of Alliance’ reached between the PDP and BJP, Mufti was to lead the coalition government for the full term of six years, which began on March 1 last year.

Mufti’s death came at a crucial stage as he had the capacity and capability to keep the two ideologically divergent parties together despite all odds. He had a similar experience keeping a flock of multiple parties together when he led the first three-year term as the head of the PDP-Congress government from November 2002 to November 2005.

His daughter Mehbooba, having learnt well the lessons on politics from her father, particularly over the last two decades, seems to be the right choice for the coalition parties to keep the arrangement undisturbed for the remaining five-year term of the government.

Apart from her ability to “consolidate the party base”, she has the experience as an elected member of the state Assembly. She was the Congress candidate from Bijbehara in 1999 and PDP candidate from Pahalgam in 2002 and from Wachi in Shopian district in 2008. She was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2004 and 2014.