Two PDP Leaders Hit Out at Mehbooba, Accusing Her of Nepotism

After the PDP-BJP coalition fell in J&K, this is the first public attack on Mehbooba Mufti by a senior party leader.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. 

(Photo: IANS)

Influential Shia leader and former minister Imran Ansari on Monday, 2 July, hit out at PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, accusing her of nepotism.

"Mehbooba Mufti not only failed the PDP as a party but also dashed the dreams of her father, late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, that he had envisaged," Imran told PTI.

He accused Mehbooba of nepotism in the party as well as in the PDP-BJP coalition government she headed.

“It had become a family show which was run by brothers, uncles and other relatives. The Peoples Democratic Party has become Family Democratic Party,” he said in an apparent reference to the induction of Tasaduq Mufti, a political newbie, as cabinet minister earlier this year and a key position going to Sartaj Madni, Mehbooba’s uncle, in the party.

Farooq Andrabi, another relative of the PDP president, was also a minister for some time.

Imran claimed that he had told Mehbooba several times that these relatives will "make you incompetent" but she paid no heed till the government fell.

“Converted Party Into Family Fiefdom”

In another bitter attack on former chief minister, senior PDP legislator Abid Hussain Ansari on Sunday, 1 July, said that she has converted the party into a "family fiefdom".

Addressing PDP workers and supporters in Zadibal area in Srinagar, Ansari said: “She has destroyed the party and finally converted it into a family fiefdom.”

"She got her cameraman brother out of the blue and made him Tourism Minister even when he did not have an elementary knowledge of tourism."

Ansari said that he has “always told her that she was surrounded by sycophants who are destroying the party and giving her wrong advice” but “she never listened to me because she was busy giving remote control of highly sensitive institutions like the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) to a relative who was running the institute from London”.

He said he has now decided to join a political party that would protect the interests of his workers and community members.

While Imran Ansari represents the Pattan constituency in Baramulla district, Abid Ansari represents the Zadibal constituency.

“Expected From the Ansaris”

Reacting to Imran's comments, a senior PDP leader said the move of the Ansaris was expected.

Imran had met Mehbooba several times in the past two years and asked for a change in portfolio. He was keen on getting Public Works Department or Rural Development but his requests were turned down.

He said Imran had been given key portfolios concerning the educated youth where he could have recharted their future course. "However, he did not seem to be interested in that kind of work," he said.

(With inputs from PTI, IANS)