|| K. LEADER DESK
Mehbooba Mufti, will not only be the first woman Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir but also the first woman Muslim chief minister in India, if and when she takes oath of office. She has emerged from the shadows of her illustrious father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to turn her Peoples Democratic Party as a regional force to reckon with. From a Law graduate to a housewife, Mehbooba, took a plunge into the mainstream politics of the state in 1996 by joining Congress, along with her father, at a time when militancy was at its peak. She is credited with the grassroots-level popularity and growth of the PDP with some observers feeling that she outshone her father in connecting to the grassroots.
What set Mehbooba apart from politicians of her time, and even her father, was her talent of ground-level political ma n a g eme n t .T h e 5 6 – y e a r – o l d , mother of two daughters, assumed an image of a fieryleader and won her first Assembly election as a Congress candidatefrom her home segment of Bijbehara.She then played a key role in her father’s victory as Congress candidate in Lok Sabha elections of 1998 when Sayeed defeated National Conference’s Mohammad Yousuf Taing from south Kashmir.
As Sayeed felt an urge to do something for return ofpeace to Kashmir,Mehbooba was by his side as the father-daughter duo decided to float their regional party – the PDP – in 1999. They took along some leaders disgruntled with National Conference and many from the Congress, a party where Sayeed spent most of his sixdecade political career. From there, Mehbooba took on the responsibility of building the new party from the start. She was accused of playing the soft-separatist card — PDP chose the green colour for the party flag and adopted Pen-Inkpot election symbol of the Muslim United Front (MUF) of 1987 — but these moves found some resonances on the ground among the Kashmir residents. Mehbooba used to visit the homes of those killed in militancy-related violence and immediately struck a cord with the people, especially women, often lending them a shoulder to cry on.
Mehbooba’s party emerged as the single largest party in the assembly elections bagging 28 seats, paving way for her father to become Chief Minister for the second time.
In 2002 Assembly polls – termed the watershed elections in the state, P DP bagged 16 seats – most of them from south where Mehbooba had extensively campaigned and consolidated the support for her party and her father was sworn-in as the chief minister of the state with the support of his former party – Congress. Two years after the elections, Mehbooba contested Parliamentary polls from south Kashmir and won – her first Lok Sabha election win. She had contested Lok Sabha elections from Srinagar in 1999 but was defeated by her bête-noire Omar Abdullah. When Amarnath land row engulfed the state, Mehbooba played an important role in persuading her father to pull out from the coalition government with Congress headed by Ghulam Nabi Azad. In 2008 assembly elections, she contested and won from Wachi segment of Shopian district of south Kashmir. Her party increased the tally to 21 seats but preferred to stay in the opposition.
It was the National Conference which formed a coalition government with Congress, which was still smarting from the PDP ‘betrayal’ following the Amarnath Land row. Mehbooba consolidated her party’s support base in the years spent as opposition part, highlighting the alleged failures of the NC-led coalition government. She was a very active opposition leader and the result of which was seen in 2014 Lok Sabha elections as the party won all the three seats in the Valley. Months later, Mehbooba’s party emerged as the single largest party in the assembly elections bagging 28 seats, paving way for her father to become Chief Minister for the second time.
In March 2015, after months of hectic negotiations, the party formed government in Jammu and Kashmir in an alliance with BJP. Although Mehbooba kept a low profile post government formation, she assumed a more central role after reports of Sayeed’s ill health surfaced. She was seen by her father’s side at most public functions while taking more interest in the affairs of the state. As the chief minister’s health deteriorated, speculation about a change of guard rose in the party and credence to those speculations was given by Sayeed himself when he hinted that his daughter could take over the reins — not by virtue of being his daughter but in view of the hard work she had put in.