Conflict

PDP unfollows rebel members on Twitter, says ‘just the beginning’

The official Twitter handle of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), @jkpdp, has unfollowed its ‘rebel members’ as a result of their direct revolt against the party leadership, a party leader, on condition of anonymity said, PTI reported.

The move is being seen as a sign of no reconciliation between the ‘rebels’ and the party leadership, a PDP leader said.

The Twitter handle has over 23,000 followers and follows 17 accounts, including party leaders, legislators, journalists and even actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha. The list does not include the rebel faction led by the influential Shia leader Imran Ansari – a former minister and MLA Pattan.

The party’s Twitter handle follows MLAs Raja Manzoor Khan (MLA Karnah), Haseeb Drabu (MLA Rajpora), Aijaz Ahmad Mir (MLA Wachi), Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali (MLA Darhal) and Abdul Haq Khan (MLA Lolab), and also Naeem Akhtar (MLC) and Firdous Tak (MLC) apart from party president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.

“The Twitter handle used to follow few of the rebel party leaders – like Ansari and Reshi – who were active on the social media and the handle would often retweet their tweets. However, after the revolt in the party, the handle not only stopped retweeting Ansari’s tweets, but also unfollowed him,” a party leader said.

The party leader said that ‘unfollowing’ the rebel leaders on Twitter “was a beginning” and more steps were likely to be taken.

“This is just the beginning. More steps are in the pipeline,” he said.

Asked if the party would suspend the rebels, the PDP leader said, “That option is open for us. We have gone a bit slow and are waiting to see the situation.”

When contacted, a party spokesperson declined to comment on the issue.

A while after BJP ended its coalition with PDP, Ansari led a revolt against Mehbooba Mufti’s leadership accusing her of nepotism. He was joined by his uncle and MLA, Zadibal, Abid Ansari, Baramulla MLA Javaid Baig, Tangmarg MLA Abbas Wani, Noorabad MLA Abdul Majid Padder, MLC Yasir Reshi and MLC Saifuddin Bhat.

 

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