Rise of CM Mehbooba

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Daanish Bin Nabi

Mehbooba Mufti has made history by becoming the first woman Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Born on 22 May 1959 at Akhran, Nowpora in district Anantnag, Mehbooba did her schooling from Presentation Convent Srinagar, graduated from Government College for Women, Parade in Jammu with English literature and then studied law at University of Kashmir. She was married to Javid Ahmed and is mother to two daughters – Irtiqa and Iltija. But her marriage later ran into problems. She shifted to New Delhi in October 1989 and worked with Bombay Mercantile Bank for nearly five years. She also worked with East West Airlines for sometime before moving back to J&K to help her father Mufti Muhammad Sayeed in his political work. 


Mehbooba took a plunge into politics in 1996 as a Congress candidate when Government of India decided to hold assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The unassuming, soft-spoken Mehbooba was an unknown face till she filed her nomination papers for the polls. She contested and won her maiden assembly election from the home constituency of Bijbehara in district Anantnag at a time when nobody was ready to contest from there due to fear of militancy. Mehbooba made a mark as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party in the State Assembly, taking on the government of the then chief minister Farooq Abdullah boldly. In 1999, her father launched Peoples Democratic Party. Much credit for building PDP goes to Mehbooba who organised party ranks by working at grassroots level.

 In the run up to the formation of PDP, Mehbooba resigned her assembly seat and went on to contest the Parliamentary Elections from Srinagar. The party did not win any seat, but earned wide recognition.  For PDP, Mehbooba’s call to the masses was simple: “When you are not cured by one doctor, don’t you go to another? So why don’t you change the party? Try a new alternative. Your problems will be solved. You have been with NC for 50 years. Give us a chance.” A strong anti-incumbency wave against NC and PDP’s pro-people stand fetched Mufti’s party 17 seats in 2002.

Mehbooba successfully contested the Assembly elections from Pahalgam constituency of district Anantnag in 2002 and vacated the seat in 2004 as she was elected to the Lok Sabha from Anantnag-Pulwama Parliamentary constituency. She again successfully contested the State Assembly elections in 2008 from Wachi constituency of district Shopian. She took over the reins of the party. In May 2014 she was re-elected to the Lok Sabha from Anantnag-Pulwama parliamentary segment.

She has served as a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committees on Empowerment of Women, Information Technology and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Despite being daughter of an influential politician, Mehbooba had a routine traditional Kashmiri upbringing. She has been greatly influenced by two persons in her life – her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and maternal grandfather Ghulam Mustafa Nazim, in whose company she spent most part of her life.

It is said that Mehbooba was unhappy when her father entered into an alliance with BJP. But she couldn’t stop her father, who was enamored by the big picture, and decided to go against the wind. At one time, she was so upset with BJP’s muscle-flexing in the alliance that she was not on talking terms with Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh. All through the ten-month alliance with BJP under her father’s leadership, Mehbooba was aware of every single development taking place. With her father not around, Mehbooba will now have to walk this thorny path alone.

Soon after the coalition government headed by Mufti Sayeed took over, Mehbooba got bitter over what she saw as a ‘raw deal’ meted out to PDP. Insiders said that this subject came up for discussion daily at Fairview, the family residence. Mehbooba was bitterly resentful of the judicial adventurism of the right-wing BJP on sensitive issues concerning Kashmir.

Mehbooba was vocal about this bitterness when Arun Jaitely visited her father at AIIMS. She spoke candidly about how her father had been wronged despite his “sacrifice”. Her response was perhaps what drove Jaitely to promptly approve the Rs 1200 crore flood relief on January 4 – a decision that had been pending for long. Mehbooba’s straightforward talk with Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav proved effective. She was bitter over the Prime Minister not finding the time to even ask the well-being of her father in AIIMS, barely a five minute drive from his 7 Race Course residence.

Even her detractors agree that Mehbooba is the rightful claimant to the post of chief minister after her father though it remains to be seen how she manages to wade through the minefield of J&K politics.

Published in Rising Kashmir at 05/04/2016 02:31:45


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