Mehbooba Mufti re-elected PDP president for 3 years

The former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, was re-elected as the president of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday for a three-year term.

A PDP spokesman said that Mehbooba was unanimously re-elected as party president for the period of three years. For the elections, electoral college from Kashmir and Jammu provinces voted to elect the party president in Srinagar and Jammu, respectively.

The 61-year-old firebrand leader was first elected as the PDP president after her father Mufti Muhammad Sayeed passed away in January 2016. Notably, her three-year term ended on October 31 last year but fresh elections as per the spokesman were not held due to Covid–19 pandemic.

At the age of 57, Mehbooba became the first woman chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir in April 2016 and remained in office till June 2018 when the BJP withdrew its support from the alliance government.

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From her personal life as a single mother to being a driving force at the grassroots in the rise of PDP against traditional politics of the National Conference, Mehbooba has faced multiple challenges and emerged more successful than before. After the abrogation of J&K’s special status under Article 370 on August 5, 2019, she was jailed for a year. However, the challenges before Mehbooba in her second innings as the PDP president are much bigger than before. Her party is in shambles ever since she lost power in 2018 as a large number of senior leaders have left the party. She is in direct confrontation with the BJP over its August 5 decision than any other leader in the region.

Born on May 22, 1959, in Bijbehara town of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, Mehbooba is one of a few female politicians from Jammu and Kashmir who enjoys recognition across the country.

A law graduate from the University of Kashmir and a single mother of two daughters - Illtija and Irtiqa - Mehbooba won her first election as a Congress candidate in the 1996 Assembly polls, when militant strikes were frequent.

Controversies have surrounded the Mufti family since Mehbooba’s sister Rubaiya was kidnapped when their father was appointed India’s first Muslim Home Minister in 1989.

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When insurgency was at its peak during the 90s and politicians were afraid to move freely even in the secure pockets of Srinagar, Mehbooba braved to tread into the volatile areas, where militancy was raging.

She even visited families of slain militants. In 1999, she visited the residence of the then Hizbul Mujahideen operations chief Aamir Khan whose teenage son, Abdul Hameed, had allegedly been killed in custody by the security forces.

This path-breaking strategy paid off as Mehbooba was successful in enlisting the electoral support of the Valley’s separatist constituency, particularly the cadre of the Jamaat-i-Islami, and covert help from the Hizbul. But it equally dented her image in New Delhi.