Faith reposed: Mehbooba to lead PDP again, elected party president for sixth time
Srinagar: For the sixth time in a row since 2003, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti was Saturday re-elected as the People Democratic Party (PDP) president at Jammu.
Over 300 functionaries including the parliament members of the party, MLA’s, MLC’s, Zonal and district presidents unanimously decided to re-elect Mehbooba as the party president in the elections held here.
The elections started at 11:00 am in which Mehbooba was declared as the party president for the fifth consecutive time.
Senior PDP leader and Minister Abdul Rehman Veeri was designated as the Returning Officer in the elections while Fallail Singh was discharging the duties of the Election Observer.
Sources privy to the development said that the all the functionaries who started reaching Jammu two days ago had unanimously decided to elect Mehbooba Mufti as the president one more time, keeping in view the work done under her president ship so far.
The Chief Minister is continuously being elected as the party president since 2003.
“Six elections for the president seat have taken place since 2003 and the party continues to repose their faith in Mehbooba,” sources said.
Notably, PDP was formed in the year 1999 and the PDP patron, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed remained as its president till 2001.
Sources said that Member of Parliament (MP) and senior PDP leader, Muzaffar Hussain Beigh remained the acting president of the party for two years till 2003.
After the PDP forged an alliance with the Congress to form a coalition government in 2002, Mehbooba took over as the party president for the first time in 2003, since then the functionaries continued to repose their faith in her leadership.
“The election for the post of the PDP president was held today where she was elected unopposed,” party leaders said, adding that the Finance Minister Dr Haseeb A Drabu nominated Mehbooba as the party’s presidential candidate.
Earlier, Member of Parliament (MP) Muzaffar Hussain Beigh nominated her for four times while Senior PDP leader and former minister, Molvi Iftikhar Ansari nominated her once.
Sources said that Beigh was scheduled to nominate her name once again but due to some reasons he could not reach the venue on time therefore, Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu nominated her name for the first time.
Besides president, Mehbooba is the first woman who became the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
After the demise of former Chief Minister and Mehbooba’s father, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed’s in January 2016, she took over as the Chief Minister of the state, setting a new record in the history of the state’s politics.
After the culmination of elections at Jammu, Mehbooba thanked the party for reposing their trust for the sixth consecutive time.
“Thankful to the party in reposing their trust and electing me as their President. Will work tirelessly to fulfill our shared vision of development, inclusiveness and reconciliation in J&K,” Mehbooba wrote on twitter.
KV Correspondent
