‘I understand…’: Mehbooba Mufti’s surprise tweet to Uddhav is swipe at BJP

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said she had borne the brunt of standing up to the BJP-led central government

SRINAGAR: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday waded into the back-and-forth between the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after a majority of the Sena Maharashtra legislators backed rebel leader Eknath Shinde and forced Uddhav Thackeray to resign, saying she had borne the brunt of standing up to the BJP-ruled central government too.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti’s tweet to Uddhav Thackeray was a surprise because the Shiv Sena has been sharply critical of the former J&K chief minister (HT File Photo/Wazeem Andrabi)

“Having borne the brunt for standing upto GOI (Government of India), I understand when a political party is splintered. A party made with sweat, blood & tears is suddenly broken into pieces & hijacked. It isnt just you vs the BJP. You fight against the might of the entire government & agencies,” Mehbooba Mufti said in a post on Twitter on Thursday.

To be sure, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah also tweeted about the political developments in Maharashtra, sharing his assessment of the uphill task that Uddhav Thackeray has.

“#EknathShinde as CM is very bad news for #UddhavThackarey and his branch of the Shiv Sena. Uddhav was probably counting on a BJP CM giving, him a political weapon to target Shinde with. This makes the job of rebuilding their Shiv Sena much more difficult for Thackerays,” the former chief minister said.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president’s tweet came around the same time that BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde, the Sena leader who fronted the rebellion against chief minister Uddhav Thackeray were preparing to meet governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to stake claim to form the government. Thackeray announced his decision to resign on Wednesday evening. Of the Shiv Sena’s 55 MLAs, Shinde appears to have the support of 39 legislators; Thackeray only 16.

Mehbooba Mufti’s tweet was seen as a reference to the rapid decline of the party after the PDP, which secured 28 seats in the 2014 J&K elections, forged an alliance with the BJP. The BJP, however, exited the coalition government in 2018 leading to the collapse of the coalition and bringing the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir under governor’s rule.

Several senior PDP leaders especially legislators and former ministers started leaving the party soon after. Some of them joined Apni Party led by Altaf Bukhari, and many others, the Peoples Conference led by Sajjad Lone.

The PDP did manage to win over two dozen seats in district development council elections that the party contested in 2020 as part of a regional alliance, People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD).

Among the senior prominent leaders who quit the PDP were former ministers Altaf Bukhari, Haseeb Drabu, Muzaffar Baig, Bashaarat Bukhari, Imran Ansari and over a dozen of former legislators, MPs and MLCs. Many of them blamed Mehbooba Mufti for their decision to resign from the party that they co-founded with her father, former chief minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in late 1990’s.