Muftis vacate CM’s official residence, spark speculation

SRINAGAR: Quietly and without fuss, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and her mother Gulshah Mufti, widow of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, vacated the Jammu & Kashmir CM’s official residence last week, a senior government official told TOI on Thursday.

Deputy director, estates, Satish Kumar, said the watchman at the bungalow reported the Mufti family landed at the Wazarat Road house last week and emptied it, which amounts to vacating the official CM house in the winter capital. PDP later issued a statement that the Mufti family’s belongings were taken out to maintain the highest standards of dignified political conduct practised by late Sayeed. “There’s no politics involved,” senior PDP official Naeem Akhtar said.

But, exiting the official house, coupled with Mehbooba’s lengthening silence over government formation, has made many observers contend that this could be yet another way of telling BJP about her unhappiness over their differences.

Among several points of departure between PDP and BJP, Mehbooba is particularly miffed with the Centre’s rejection of the transfer of two power projects, Dulhasti at Kishtwar and Uri in Baramulla.

It was Union power minister Piyush Goyal who, in a written reply to a question by PDP MP Tariq Hamid Karra, had said the Centre would not hand over the NHPC power projects to the J&K government.

Karra claimed Goyal refused in spite of the Union finance ministry agreeing to provide Rs 27,000 crore to the state government to buy back Uri and Dulhasti projects.