End of an Era in J & K Politics

End of an Era in J & K Politics

Sayeed laid to rest, Mehabooba set become CM

Srinagar/ New Delhi: Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, who died at Delhi on Thursday, 7^th January 2016 mornig, laid to rest at his hometown Bijbehara in the evening Thousands attended the burial. Meanwhile, PDP urged the governor to let his daughter Mehbooba Mufti take charge of the country’s only Muslim-majority state.

A huge mass of mourners, inclusive of VIPs, family members and party activists, assembled at the first ‘Nimaz-e-Jinaza’ (funeral prayer) for Sayeed at Srinagar and a second in his hometown Bijbehara. With Sayeeds death the long chapter in Kashmiri politics came to and end..

Senior PDP leaders Muzaffar Hussain Beigh and Altaf Bukhari, today submitted a letter to Governor N.N. Vohra nominating Mehbooba Mufti as the leader of their legislature party — which would entitle her to assume charge as the new chief minister of the BJP-PDP coalition government.

PDP sources told that the letter urged the governor to administer the oath of office to Mehbooba Mufti after Sayeed’s last rites. If and when that happens, she will have to prove her majority on the floor of the 87-member assembly.

But the governor returned to Jammu on Thursday evening, indicating that the oath-taking ceremony of Mehbooba Mufti as chief minister was likely to be delayed.

The swearing in can take place on Friday, said a senior PDP leader, adding that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its alliance partner in the state government, backed Mehbooba Mufti’s elevation as chief minister.

Sayeed, who led the first coalition government in the state also involving the BJP, died in New Delhi on Thursday, 14 days after he was hospitalized.

Sayeed passed away at 9.10 a.m. at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, three days after he was put on ventilator. A severely diabetic, he “died due to bone marrow dysfunction”, a spokesman told IANS. He was admitted on December 24 with fever as well as chest infection. Amid national mourning, his body was flown to Srinagar.

Leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sayeed – who survived several attacks on him by militants – was chief minister the first time in 2002-05 in a coalition government with the Congress. In March last year, he allied with the BJP to become the chief minister again.