4 PDP lawmakers skip meeting

A Lok Sabha MP and three legislators of Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) skipped a meeting chaired by chief Mehbooba Mufti in Srinagar on Saturday, signalling dissent against the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

PDP legislators and senior leaders from north Kashmir were called for the meeting after similar discussions with representatives from south and central Kashmir on Tuesday. Legislators Javeed Baig (from Baramulla), Imran Reza Ansari (Pattan), Abas Wani (Gulmarg) and Muzuffar Hussain Baig, who represents Baramulla in Parliament, skipped Saturday’s meeting. Top PDP office bearers in these constituencies were absent too. “I am attending a wedding, so didn’t have an idea about any meeting,” said Javeed Baig. Javeed is a nephew of Muzuffar Hussain Baig, a founder of the PDP. “We discussed the party affairs and the preparation of the foundation day,” said a senior party leader who attended Saturday’s meeting.

Sources said the PDP plans a rally in Srinagar on July 28, its foundation day, to display its strength and party leaders and legislators have been asked to make the event successful. Two PDP legislators from south Kashmir skipped Mufti’s Tuesday meeting. After she resigned as chief minister on June 19, six legislators had accused Mufti of turning the PDP into her family fiefdom. Abdul Majeed Padder, MLA from Noorabad, met Mufti once but later joined the rebel group. Mufti, last week, warned her former ally, BJP that efforts to break the PDP could have “dangerous consequences”.

“Our party is intact and strong. There are problems just like we have problems in families. The breakup within the PDP can only happen with the support of Delhi. If they (Delhi) will do the same what they did to Muslim United Front--to crush it...with the PDP it will have dangerous consequences,” Mufti said.