Altaf Bukhari, 60, Kashmir Valley’s top businessman with just five years of experience in politics, has triggered a churning, with over 13 leaders quitting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the National Conference (NC) fearing an “attempt to change the goal post for the regional parties”.
Four leaders, including former MLA Yawar Mir, resigned from the PDP, a day after the party expelled nine leaders for their decision to meet a team of 15 ambassadors and diplomats, as part of a delegation led by Mr. Bukhari, and submit to the Lt. Governor a memorandum seeking statehood and domicile laws.
There is a growing international pressure to restore a genuine political process in Kashmir, and Mr. Bukhari has emerged as a leader to voice the new demands and fashion new mainstream politics. His approach will pressure the other parties to re-frame their goals.
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Sources said the jailed PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti, has ordered action against all “those compromising on the party’s position on Article 370 and 35A”.
“Those who were expelled or resigned are just a bunch of opportunists who enjoyed the power when the PDP was ruling Jammu and Kashmir. It will not deter the party from pursuing its rightful agenda,” a senior leader told The Hindu.
Mr. Bukhari, the richest candidate in the 2014 Assembly election with assets worth ₹84 crore, was sidelined by the PDP for negotiating with the BJP without Ms. Mufti’s approval in 2016. Eventually expelled, Mr. Bukhari became the first leader in the Valley to meet European Union parliamentarians in Delhi in October and 15 Ambassadors on January 9. Departing from the regional parties’ demands for greater autonomy and self-rule, Mr. Bukhari has set a new goal: statehood and domicile laws. Even PDP patron Muzaffar Hussain Baig’s nephew Javaid Baig, a former MLA, has decided to back Mr. Bukhari. “There was a dire need for the politicians like him to begin the process of reconciliation so as to secure statehood and guarantees for land and job rights. Restoration of Article 370 is impossible, and we need to revisit our stand,” said Mr. Baigh.
Sources said Mr. Bukhari would likely float his own party, with a few PDP and NC leaders ready to join him.
“Mr. Bukhari’s politics is a dangerous departure for the regional politics. From ‘azaadi’, autonomy and self-rule, Mr. Bukhari has lowered the goal to reservation in jobs and new laws for land sale to outsiders,” a senior NC leader said.
