Senior PDP leader Imran Ansari calls for ouster of Mehbooba Mufti, says ‘she serves family’

Senior People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader and former Jammu and Kashmir minister Imran Ansari has hit out at former chief minister Mehboob Mufti, accusing her of destroying the party. He said that Mehbooba had termed the PDP into ‘family fiefdom’.

Lashing out at the PDP chief, Ansari said, “She introduced his own brother and assigned him a powerful portfolio. She also inducted his uncle and forgot to serve common masses.” Speaking to mediapersons, Ansari further said that “in real senses, we have left PDP long before but are only attached as MLAs”.

Raising the banner of revolt against Mehbooba in the party, Ansari called for change in the leadership of the PDP.

This comes after his uncle and another PDP leader, Abid Hussain Ansari, said that he has "always told her that she was surrounded by sycophants who are destroying the party and giving her wrong advice" but "she never listened to me because she was busy giving remote control of highly sensitive institutions like the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) to a relative who was running the institute from London".

He said he has now decided to join a political party that would protect the interests of his workers and community members.

After the PDP-BJP coalition government fell in the state, this is the first public attack on Mehbooba Mufti by senior party leaders.

Ansari belongs to a powerful religious family of the Shia community and sitting MLA and former Education Minister Imran Ansari is his nephew. Imran Ansari represents the Pattan constituency in Baramulla district while Abid Ansari represents the Zadibal constituency.

(With IANS inputs)