Chaos in Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) which started with the dissidence by about five sitting MLAs days after the fall of Mehbooba led PDP BJP coalition government has entered a new critical phase with the demand for change in leadership at the top. Knowing the Mehbooba Mufti won’t at any cost allowed anyone else to either take charge of the party or head any new coalition government in alliance with BJP the dissidents have tended to raise the demand for replacement of Mehbooba Mufti by the senior most leader of the party Muzaffar Hussain Baig a former Deputy Chief Minister and presently Member Parliament representing Baramulla-Kupwara Lok Sabha constituency. Perhaps the dissidents while raising the demand for replacement of Mehbooba Mufti have not kept in mind the fact that Baig too has already inducted two members of his family members into the party and one of them is a sitting MLA from Baramulla assembly constituency from where Muzaffar Baig himself was elected both in 2002 and 2008 assembly elections. So supporting Baig as an alternative to Mehbooba would mean that the transfer of the control of the party from one family to the other keeping in view the political ambitions of Baig’s first cousin Javeed Baig present MLA from Baramulla and Safina Baig the Baig’s wife recently who was recently offered the position of the presidency of party’s women’s wing.
A resignation by five dissident MLAs or their disqualification in the wake of defection to any other party would set the agenda for Mehbooba Mufti to revamp her party and end the present organization chaos.
So if at all Mehbooba chooses to find a replacement for herself either as party president or leader of the legislature her utmost priority would be to bring in her any die hard loyalist and widely acceptable legislator. After the resignation of Sartaj Madni as party’s vice president all depends on the reshuffle in the party which the party President Mehbooba Mufti’s won’t undertake in haste. Though brining in new faces to put into hiding her controversial coterie men like Nayeem Akhter and Peerzada Mansoor Hussain is just a possibility which can’t be ruled out but all depends on the future course of action of the five dissident MLAs of the party. A resignation by five dissident MLAs or their disqualification in the wake of defection to any other party would set the agenda for Mehbooba Mufti to revamp her party and end the present organization chaos.
