Former IG Raja Ajaz Ali quits PDP

SRINAGAR: In another setback to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Raja Ajaz Ali Khan , who had joined the party ahead of 2014 elections, resigned from its basic membership on Thursday.

Khan, former inspector general of police, had contested polls from North Kashmir’s Uri assembly seat. Though the leader lost the elections, he had managed to garner over 18,000 votes in the polls and stood as the runner up.

He was looking after the party affairs in north Kashmir.

Khan announced his resignation through a letter which he posted on social media where he blamed the PDP leadership for ignoring the Uri constituency and him.

In his letter, Khan blamed the party leadership for adjusting ‘blue-eyed candidates’ on legislative council and Rajya Sabha seats and ignoring the voters of Uri.

“Your colleagues in the cabinet didn’t leave a single opportunity to humiliate our workers by siding with opposition leaders in the constituency,’’ Khan wrote in his resignation letter.

Khan is the fifth most prominent senior leader of the PDP to have resigned from the party in past few days.

Former ministers Haseeb Drabu and Imran Reza Ansari, former legislators Abid Ansari and Abas Wani resigned from the party recently. While Imran and Abid joined the Peoples Conference led by Sajjad Lone, there are similar reports of Khan and Wani joining the same.

Khan, however, said he would take next step after consulting his workers.

As per speculations, few other senior PDP leaders are contemplating to leave the party in the coming days. Former minister Bashaarat Bukhari, who was legislator from Sangrama, is likely to resign from the party and join National Conference (NC).

Bukhari had recently called a meeting of his workers and sought their opinion regarding the same. He had also skipped the meeting called by party president Mehbooba Mufti on December 10.