Had former Chief Election Commissioner T N Seshan as part of his sweeping electoral reforms not made it mandatory for political parties recognized with the Election Commission of India to conduct elections for the elections of their office bearers, the incumbent Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti won’t have even bothered to think about conducting a name sake election for her re-election for sixth consecutive term . Holding an election for the office bearers including the party president is not a precedence set by them on their own but a compulsion for mainstream political parties necessitated by the electoral reforms undertaken by the former Chief Election Commissioner T N Seshan long back. As far as the control of Mufti dynasty over PDP presidency is concerned, the founder of the party late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed a two time former Chief Minister of the state himself instigated and promoted infighting within the party just to keep his main challengers fighting for their individual survivals and retain control with him. Till PDP emerged as a challenge to National Conference in 2002 assembly elections both Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and his daughter Mehbooba Mufti used to seek public support for struggle against dynasty rule propagated and promoted by Abdullahs’ of National Conference but after the formation of coalition government with Congress in October 2002 the PDP founder late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed himself instigated a series of infighting drama within just to throw out some of his strong challengers from his party not in one go but one by one.
Since Muftis’ have been propagating and promoting infighting between the party veterans just to keep them busy with struggle for survival, the opportunity to keep control with her are not denied to Mehbooba Mufti.
Under the chief ministership of Mufti Mohammad (2002-05) the infighting between two senior most leaders Muzaffar Hussain Baig and Gh Hassan Mir rose to sky rocketing heights but Mufti himself instead of dousing the flames of infighting within his party allowed it to continue and finally grabbed an opportunity to oust Gh Hassan Mir who would always challenge the authority of late Mufti on the policy decisions of both the government and the party. After ousting Gh Hassan Mir, late Mufti brought into his party fold the veteran shia cleric and top mainstream leader late Molvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari but within few months after joining the party late Molvi Inftikhar Hussain Ansari started fighting with Muzaffar Hussain Baigh. As the infighting between Ansari and Beig continued, the party founder late Mufti silently did not try to pacify the two senior leaders and reconcile them but instead watched this phase of infighting in the party. Had death not come Ansari’s way late Mufti would have ousted either Ansari or Baig to get rid of at least of one of his challengers . After Ansari’s death late Mufti neutralized the role of two party legends Muzaffar Hussain Baig and Tariq Hameed Kara in state politics by fielding them as candidates for 2014 parliamentary elections. Immediately after the formation of a coalition government with BJP for the first time in the state, late Mufti as Chief Minister owned Muzaffar Hussain Baig and disowned Tariq Hameed Kara just to instigate another round of infighting within the party with the sole purpose of clearing decks for the election of Mehbooba Mufti as Chief Minister. Late Mufti as Chief Minister just a month before his death spoke publicly against Kara, owned Muzaffar Hussain Baig and declared Mehooba Mufti fully competent to take up the challenges as Chief Minister of the state and as such the intents of his promoting dynasty politics could be understood even by naives. As Kara challenged party on the decision to continue alliance with the BJP many a times after Mufti’s death, Mehbooba just like her father late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed started provoking Tariq Hameed Kara on many of her policy decisions and finally forced him to quit. Scared by the tendencies of the divisive politics of Muftis’ none from the PDP dared to come out to challenge Mehbooba Mufti .Since Muftis’ have been propagating and promoting infighting between the party veterans just to keep them busy with struggle for survival, the opportunity to keep control with her are not denied to Mehbooba Mufti.
