Key political milestones in Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s life
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed passed away at AIIMS, New Delhi, on Thursday morning.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed passed away at AIIMS, New Delhi, on Thursday morning.

The 79-year-old, who founded the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had been admitted to the premier hospital on December 24, and later shifted to intensive care in a critical state, following complaints of severe fever and neck pain. He finally died of a cardiac arrest.
Sayeed was suffering from a non-specific systemic infection, with the exact cause of the infection not being known. He had a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a progressive lung disease. Sayeed was being administered prophylactic antibiotics and anti-fungal drugs as well as oxygen therapy.
Read | Mufti Sayeed, J-K ‘healing touch’ CM, passes away in Delhi
His treatment was being closely monitored by a team of experts comprising doctors from several departments at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He was also a patient of acute diabetes and had been on a routine check-up every month at the institute.
Even before Sayeed fell ill, reports said he intended to hand down power to his daughter Mehbooba Mufti after completing one year in office on March 1, 2016. Mehbooba currently heads the PDP whose alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been ruling the state since March 1 this year.
Read | Mehbooba Mufti set to take over as next CM of Jammu and Kashmir
Joining politics in the newly independent India, Sayeed political career traversed through many political changes in the country. Here are the milestones in his career:
1950: Joined politics as member of Democratic National Congress
1967: Elected to the state assembly
1972: Sworn in as cabinet minister in the Congress government in J&K
1975: Appointed as Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee.
1986: Inducted as Union minister in the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet
1987: Quit Congress and floated Jan Morcha in league with VP Singh
1989: Became India’s first Muslim Union home minister
1996: Joined the Congress again and contested assembly elections
1999: Quit the Congress and formed People’s Democratic Party
2002: Sworn in as chief minister of PDP-Congress coalition government.
2014: Forged a post-poll alliance with BJP to form a coalition government; took over as chief minister for his second term
Flashback | Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on intolerance, Kashmir and a secular India

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