congress-dumps-mehbooba-most-vocal-bjp-critic-in-jammu-and-kashmir

In a not-so-surprising development, the Congress has dumped the People’s Democratic Party, one of the constituents of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), in favour of the National Conference, another INDIA party. 

 

Both parties are based out of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, now a union territory. In fact, both the parties have their presence restricted in the Kashmir valley only, covering three of the six parliamentary constituencies. 

 

Like Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti happens to be a former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is now a union territory.  

 

And again like Omar inherited the Chief Ministership from his father Farooq Abdullah, she also inherited the party and the Chief Ministership from her father, another former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who was also a former Union Home Minister. 

 

He was originally a congressman and had parted ways with Rajeev Gandhi and sided with VP Singh, who made him the Union Home Minister in 1989, after getting him elected from Muzaffarnagar in UP.

 

Mufti was also a staunch critic and strong opponent of the National Conference and Abdullahs. Their rivalry was as fierce as that between the BJP and the Congress these days. 

 

When Congress aligned with the National Conference in 1987, Mufti withdrew himself for a while from J&K. 

 

He was appointed Union Tourism Minister by Rajiv Gandhi. But the drift continued and he eventually parted ways with Gandhi to join Janta Dal led by VP Singh.

 

In the late 1990s, Mufti returned to Congress only to resign again and form his own People’s Democratic Party.

 

He was accused of paddling “soft secessionism” using separatist and religious, “green” symbols.

 

He contested the 2002 elections and his party won 16 of the 87 assembly segments. The ruling National Conference won 28, while the Congress won 20. Another Jammu-based party, Panthers Party won four constituencies.

 

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. He allowed Mufti to forge an alliance with the Congress, although the National Conference at that time was part of the ruling National Democratic Alliance at the centre.

 

Vajpayee did not encourage the NC to explore options for forming a government despite being the single largest party and despite it being part of his NDA. 

 

That time it was thought to have been done in the national interest to allow more mainstream parties to occupy the political space including the government. 

 

The PDP and Congress entered into a rotational chief ministership agreement. For the first three years (JK assembly term till 2019 was six years), it was the PDP which got the Chief Ministership and after three years it had to be a Congress Chief Minister. 

 

In 2005, Mufti made way, although quite reluctantly, for Ghulam Nabi Azad. By 2008, when the term of the assembly was completed, the PDP and Congress had completely fallen apart.

In 2008, it was again a hung house in JK. 

 

NC was the single largest party with 28 members in the house of 28. This time PDP graduated to the second position with 21 members. Congress won 17 and the BJP eleven, for the first time in the history of JK. 

 

This time the Congress aligned with the National Conference as it had completely fallen apart from the PDP. Omar Abdullah became the Chief Minister. 

 

It was the Congress-led UPA government at the centre and the NC was part of the UPA.

 

In the meanwhile, the PDP and the NC continued to remain bitter rivals. Both the parties separately aligned with the Congress, but they never aligned with each other. 

 

It was only after Article 370 of the Constitution was abrogated, that the Kashmir-based parties decided to bury their hatchet and come together, under the banner of People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration. 

 

It was named after a Srinagar locality, called Gupkar, which houses the residences of prominent people including Abdullah. 

 

Since the first meeting of the alliance was held at Abdullah’s residence, it was named after that locality, ‘Gupkar’ only. 

 

Its main purpose was the restoration of Article 370 and statehood for JK.

 

However, due to the competing interests within the alliance, it could not last long and was eventually dissolved in March this year and the situation was back to proverbial “square one”.

 

For the Congress, the choice was not very difficult between the PDP and the NC, although both have aligned with the BJP at different times as they have aligned with the Congress. 

 

The PDP is a younger and smaller player as compared to the NC, which has a long history that goes back to about ninety years. 

 

The PDP is in fact a Congress offshoot only. Compared to the NC, the PDP’s limited influence is restricted to just two districts of South Kashmir, Anantnag and Pulwama. Even there it is not a dominant force. 

 

One of its prominent founding members Tariq Hamid Karra parted ways with the PDP after the death of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. 

 

Karra was not comfortable with the PDP joining hands with the BJP. 

 

He couldn’t overrule the senior Mufti and once he was not around, he left the party. 

 

There are very limited options left for Mehbooba right now. She has been dumped by the Congress for the NC. She cannot go with the BJP at this stage. Nobody knows about the future. 

 

The influence of her own party is waning. There are already multiple and influential players in the field. Even her extremist approach has certain limitations. She played the politics of “soft secessionism”, for which there are no buyers anymore. 

 

She will need to rethink, re-plan and rework her whole strategy and may even need a policy shift for political survival, which must be her sole concern right now.