Ex-MLA Gulmarg all set to desert PDP
Baig joins Mehbooba again, may be made party patron
Abass Wani addressing a poll rally in 2014. A FILE PHOTO
Srinagar, Dec 10: As PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and seemingly disgruntled Lok Sabha member Muzaffar Hussain Baig jointly chaired a meeting of the party here Monday, party’s MLA from Gulmarg, Mohammad Abass Wani droped ample hints that he is all set to quit the party.
“Senior leaders of the party today (Monday) met under the chairmanship of party President @MehboobaMufti and Muzzafar Hussain Beigh Sahab,” the PDP said on its Twitter handle soon after the meeting.
The development comes amidst rebellion in the PDP with three former MLAs having quit and rumours of many more leaders likely to desert the party ahead of the fresh Assembly elections.
The polls have been necessitated due to dissolution of the lower house of the State Legislature by Governor Satya Pal Malik on November 21.
Besides Imran Ansari and his uncle Abid Ansari, former finance minister Haseeb Drabu have resigned from the PDP following the dissolution of the Assembly.
Speculations were rife that Baig, whose wife Safina Baig is the president of women’s wing of the PDP, might quit the party as he came out in public against the party leadership on November 20.
“The PDP betrayed the workers, denying them a chance to connect with the people, by boycotting the (municipal) elections. They left a vacuum and that space has now been occupied. Politics does not wait for people who boycott,” Baig had said last month.
Baig said he was not consulted when the party took the decision to boycott the local bodies’ polls.
“I was in Delhi, just a phone call away. I remained quiet because I did not want the PDP to fall as asunder,” he said.
Mehbooba had a meeting with Baig amidst unconfirmed reports that he would be made party patron.
Sources said that PDP president Mehbooba Mufti has promised to make Baig as Patron of the party and Baig has willingly agreed to accept the position.
Meanwhile, following the resignation of former Rajpora MLA and former finance minister, Haseeb Drabu, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) got another jolt today as its former MLA from Gulmarg, Mohammad Abass Wani decided to quit the party.
Wani, who had already hinted, after the fall of the PDP-BJP government that he was on his own, today dropped hints that he will be leaving his parent party PDP.
However, sources close to Wani said that he is sending his resignation letter to PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti, in a day or two.
