Srinagar: Following the footsteps of the two Ansaris, MLA from Zadibal constituency, PDP’s Tangmarg MLA Mohammad Abbas Wani and his counterpart from Noorabad, Abdul Majeed Paddar have echoed the sentiments against former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.
“Primarily, many party MLAs do not feel respected the same way as they did during Mufti Sayeed’s time. We have told this to Mehbooba-ji time and again. I also spoke about this in the last Assembly session in February. Even after that, the party leadership made no effort to reach out to me, or ask other MLAs (about) their grievances,” Abbas Wani said.
Majeed Paddar said, “I am ready to support any initiative that wishes to form government in the state, as Governor’s rule is not in the best interest of people.”
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In May, according to Wani, 10 party MLAs had met Mehbooba in her Fairview residence asking her not to abandon the party, but she had not responded positively.
“I told Mehbooba-ji (that) we are all upset. When Mufti-sahab was the leader of the party, every MLA felt they were close to him — he made you feel like that. But that has changed since she (Mehbooba) took over. I advised her to take a page off her father’s book in keeping the party together,” he said.
Altaf Bukhari and Muzaffar Beig, senior PDP leaders have refused to comment on the ongoing split in the party.
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“We believe Governor’s rule should not be permanent. For now, we are holding discussions on the future course of action of the party,”G A Mir, State Congress chief said. He added that the state had a ‘stringent anti-defection law’, saying, ‘they should read the law first, but if they want to break the law, the Congress party will not support it.’
“We do not want it (the state) to be thrown into another chaos by way of horse-trading or rumour-mongering,” he stated.
Earlier, PDP’s Imran Reza Ansari had accused Mehbooba Mufti of nepotism and had procalimed that he was in talks with ‘like-minded parties’.
