‘Delhi agent’ Bukhari to float new party in J&K

■ Ex-mantri to launch ‘Apni Party’, will project it as ‘alternative’ to regional outfits

A new political party will be floated in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday by Syed Altaf Bukhari, a former minister in the PDPBJP coalition government, who is widely believed in local political circles as being New Delhi’s new ‘point man’ in the Valley.

He has, over the past few weeks, come under criticism by his opponents and is even being denigrated on social media over his planned venture.

A political party will be floated in J&K on Sunday by Syed Altaf Bukhari, a former minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government, who is widely believed in local political circles as being New Delhi’s new “point man” in the Valley. He has, over the past few weeks, come under criticism from his opponents and is being denigrated on social media over his planned venture.

However, M. Bukhari strongly denied the new party, to be christened “Apni Party”, is being launched at the behest of the Centre or that there are any other ulterior motives attached to his venture. He said in an interview that though being in politics “accidentally”, he considers himself as a “foot soldier” who wants to make a “sincere effort” to resolve the array of problems confronting the people of J&K and lessen the blow of political uncertainty the erstwhile state has been caught in since August 5 last year.

It would be a truly ‘apni’ (own) party of the people of J&K, he insisted.

Evidently, the party will be projected as an “alternative” to conventional regional political organisations such as National Conference and People’s

Democratic Party in the run-up to the elections of the UT Assembly which the government proposes to hold later this year.

‘Apni Party’ will comprise mainly ‘disgruntled’ members of the PDP including former ministers and legislators who have quit the party or were thrown out of it for their alleged antiparty activities.

Those former PDP second-rung leaders and lawmakers who have openly rallied behind Mr Bukhari include Muhammad Dilawar Mir, Javed Hussain Beig, Muhammad Rafi Mir, Abdur Rahim Rather, Abdul Majeed Paddar, Zaffar Iqbal Manhas and Noor Muhammad.

NC’s former legislator Vijay Bakaya, Congress’ Usman Majid, Manjeet Singh and Vikram Malhotra, BJP’s Gagan Bhagat and former minister and Democratic Party Nationalist leader Ghulam Hassan Mir are likely to jump on to Mr Bukhari’s bandwagon.

He is expecting former deputy chief minister and PDP patron Muzaffar Hussain Beig to join him sooner rather than later.

Mr Beig has lately openly criticised PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, who is under detention for the past seven months, over certain of her political annotations and actions both as party president and chief minister and, on the other hand, ardently showered praise upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah.

Mr Bukhari, a business tycoon-turned-politician known to be very close to the corridors of power in Delhi, has been in the forefront of supplementing the government’s covert effort to “encourage” mainstream politicians including former ministers and lawmakers to team up and initiate political activities in such fashion that would break the political stalemate which persists in J&K since August 5, 2019, when it was stripped of its special status and split up into two UTs by the Centre.