J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is all set to induct her younger brother Tasaduq Mufti into the cabinet and make him the tourism minister. Decks for the move were cleared during the meeting of the PDPs Political Affairs Committee early this month.
Tasaduq has since been nominated to the Legislative Council. The CM has already nominated her uncle Sartaj Madni as the party Vice President. And Mehbooba herself was elected as the president for the sixth consecutive term. And her cousin Sajad Mufti is the PDP coordinator for South Kashmir, the partys political bastion.
Her another relative Farooq Ahmad Andrabi who was a minister of state in the government has resigned to let Tasaduq take over as the minister.
Tasaduqs joining the politics has been the most conspicuous political development in the state over the past two years. He quit his earlier calling as a cinematographer in Bollywood and joined the PDP at a grand public rally organized onJanuary 7 to observe the first death anniversary of the former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, his father.
Thereafter, he was made the chief of the Chief Ministers Grievance Redressal Cell. But he soon rose to become a powerful presence in the government, driving policy on environment and tourism. In fact, earlier this year, he was the brain behind the five minute tourism promotional video, Warmest Place on Earth. It highlighted the hospitality of Kashmiris to counter the negative portrayal of the state in sections of the national media.
Mehboobas decision to elevate her immediate family members to senior ranks in the party and the government is seen as part of her bid to secure control of the party following the death of her father in January last year. The move is expected to further marginalize the partys old guard, some of whom like Muzaffar Hussain Beigh have progressively moved into shadows. Another member Tariq Hameed Karra resigned in the wake of the unrest last year in protest against the human rights excesses.
In the three months after the death of father, Mehbooba had refused to form the government with the BJP unless New Delhi fulfilled some of the agreed upon points in the Agenda of Alliance. This severely tested the unity of her party with a section of the leaders said to have been on the verge of breaking away from the party to form the government with the BJP.
But once in power Mehbooba has steadily moved to strengthen her hold over the party. And one of the strategies has been to place her kin in key posts.
And if there is any truth in the reports of conspiracy against her by some of the senior leaders of her party following her fathers demise, Mehbooba has a cause to be insecure. But will this insecurity feed the backlash in her party, only time will tell. One thing, however, is for sure: Mehbooba, despite her battered political image, remains the only mass leader in the party. And this will make any potential challenge to her leadership hardly worth the effort.
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