No issues with Mehbooba Mufti As CM, says BJP

By Hakeem Irfan

SRINAGAR: Bharatiya Janata Party has said for the first time that it has ‘no problems’ if People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti takes over as J&K CM, given the deteriorating health of her father and CM Mufti Muhammad Sayeed.

Senior BJP leader and health minister of the state, J&K Chaudhary Lal Singh, clarified that the 'change of guard' is an ‘internal matter’ of PDP, and BJP ‘won’t interfere with it’.

Singh’s remarks came as a relief to the PDP as there was considerable speculation that BJP may ask for the CM’s chair for at least three years on rotational basis to allow for the transition. However, BJP and RSS had privately expressed concerns over the ideological predilections of Mehbooba, who is seen as close to the pro-freedom camp.

"We are coalition partners and are running the government successfully. We have no problems if she (Mehbooba) becomes chief minister since it is an internal party matter," Singh told ET.

The coronation of Mehbooba, 56, seems ‘a matter of time’ as Sayed was airlifted to New Delhi and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of AIIMS on December 24 after he complained of ‘acute chest pain and fever’. An AIIMS spokesperson said the CM is ‘critical but stable’, he is on ‘antibiotic and antifungal treatment’ and is given ‘oxygen therapy’. “The PDP-BJP alliance has shared the responsibilities of governance. We won’t ask for any more ministerial posts or any other demand in the wake of this transition,” Singh explained.

The bigger task for the PDP now is to smoothen the transition process, as two of its senior leaders and members of Parliament -- Muzaffar Hussain Baig and Tariq Hamid Karra and their supporters -- are criticizing the party on almost every issue.

"Mehbooba played a vital role to build an alternative political option in the region. She has worked hard for around two decades and we have to give it to her. There’s no confusion on this within the party," PDP’s chief spokesperson Mehboob Baig told ET.

Sayeed, 79, himself during a presser in Jammu in November last year had asserted that Mehbooba was capable of running the affairs of the state. Mehbooba is among the founder members of PDP, which was formed in 1999, after 151 people signed the vision document. Mehbooba, along with another PDP founder member and current rebel Tariq Hamid Karra, were instrumental in breaking the coalition government with Congress in 2008 in the wake of the controversial land transfer to Amarnath Shrine Board.