From 28 to 3: PDP decimated in J&K polls

From the 28 Assembly seats in the 2014 elections to three seats in the 2024 polls, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by Mehbooba Mufti has been decimated in J&K.

Mehbooba Mufti suffered a double jolt in this election. While her party got decimated, her daughter, Iltija Mufti also lost her first election from the once strong bastion of the Muftis, the Srigufwara-Bijbehara constituency in Anantnag district.

Reacting to her party’s defeat, Mehbooba Mufti put up a bold face. She said, “It is encouraging that the people came out and voted in such large numbers. So far as PDP is concerned, everybody must accept the people’s verdict. Winning and losing is part of the election process.” 

Her senior leaders, Abdul Rehman Veeri, her uncle, Sartaj Madni, former minister, Gulam Nabi Hanjoora, Zahoor Ahmad Mir, Abdul Gaffar Sofi, Asiya Naqash and Mehboob Beg also failed to win any seat in these elections.

Three winners of the PDP include Waheed ur Rehman Parra from Pulwama, Fayaz Ahmad Mir from Kupwara and Rafiq Ahmad Naik from Tral constituency.

Among these, Waheed ur Rehman Parra has won more out of his support among the youth than the influence of the PDP in the Pulwama constituency. Fayaz Ahmad Mir was pitched against Nasir Aslam Wani of the NC and for Wani, Kupwara was an unexplored political constituency. Tral was won by Rafiq Ahmad Naik as the Naik family is politically well entrenched in the Tral constituency. The NC had left this seat for the Congress in their pre-poll alliance agreement.

The net deduction from all this is that the PDP has reached the nadir of its political existence in J&K. The party was formed by the late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed in 1999 and 2024 has virtually brought the curtain down on this party.

From its proclaimed status to play the kingmaker’s role after the 2024 polls, the PDP is left lonely and shorn of its past political clout in these elections.

Whether the party is able to resurrect itself after having been flattened by its rivals in the NC, would have to be watched.

The inept handling of political alliances, the surprising choice of fielding her daughter Iltija Mufti by shifting the well-entrenched Abdul Rehman Veeri from Srigufwara-Bijbehara to Anantnag, and listening to advisors whose political experience is restricted to their drawing rooms. These are among the major reasons for the PDP’s rout in the 2024 assembly polls.

In politics, however, nobody is ultimately out unless one chooses to call it a day.