PDP expels Bukhari for dissent

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, January 19

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Saturday expelled former Finance Minister Altaf Bukhari for anti-party activities. He has also been accused of conspiring to engineer a split in the party in 2016, soon after the death of then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

Bukhari, 59, who is also an industrialist, was the front runner for the Chief Minister’s post for his key role in forging an unprecedented alliance between the PDP, Congress and the National Conference to stake claim to form the government in November last year.

The alliance between the three parties did not materialise in a coalition government as Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the Assembly. “Bukhari conspired and led dissent in the party at its most crucial stage which resulted in a serious damage to our efforts at implementing the Agenda of Alliance of our coalition government. While the party leadership was engaged in negotiations with its partner and the Government of India insisting on implementing some agreed points before forming the new government, the dissension weakened its bargaining position forcing subsequent events against its will,” said a PDP spokesman.

The PDP spokesman said the party had been watching with concern Bukhari’s activities for quite some time. “Ever since the passing of our founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, he has been persuing his personal political ambition at the cost of the party and the state’s interest,” he said.

The spokesman said after the collapse of the coalition in June last year, Bukhari had “started open attempts at breaking the party by hobnobbing with its rivals”.

The spokesman said Bukhari never tried to clear the impression that he was at the centre of a ‘rebellion’ which was brewing in the party. Bukhari, a first-time legislator from the Srinagar’s Amira Kadal constituency, was the likely candidate for the PDP, NC and the Congress when the three parties made a claim to form the government in November last year.