In a bid to save its ship from sinking, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti will soon restructure the entire party and dissolve the membership of many leaders.
"There will be a total change in the party structure. Mehbooba Jee is not taking the recent events casually and is keen on revamping the leadership. She was recently re-elected as the party president for a term of three years and all the party office executives would be appointed by her," a PDP source said.
After a spate of resignations of at least five legislators from the party resulting from a rebellion with the top leadership including that of Mufti, the party has gone into a damage-repair mode.
On Monday, the resignation of party vice-president, Sartaj Madni who is also Mehbooba's maternal uncle did not throw many surprises.
Madni had earlier been in news for all the wrong reasons when PDP was in a coalition government with the BJP after his son's appointment to as the Executive officer to the Khaadi Village and Industries Board (KVIB) was widely questioned.
Many believe that Madni had been asked by the Mehbooba to step down after the dissenting legislators had expressed their anguish over the handling of party affairs by Mehbooba's relatives.
Imran Raza Ansari, a former minister and MLA from Pattan constituency of North Kashmir who was the first to voice his revolt against Mehbooba had termed PDP as the party of Muftis and their acquaintances. He even questioned the appointment of Mehbooba's brother Tassaduq as the State Tourism Minister which was allegedly not done on merit basis.
Imran along with his uncle Abid Ansari, who is MLA from Zadibal constituency and several other legislators quit the PDP and were reportedly in talks with Peoples Conference president Sajjad Gani Lone for a viable government formation. All the dissenting legislators have vehemently denied the charges though.
Three more dissenting legislators, Abdul Majeed Padder, Yasir Reshi and Javed Hussain Baig have also openly revolted against Mufti and her party's style of functioning.
"We are talking to all the dissidents and it is not that they have left us. There is a room for rebellion and we appreciate their concern. Maybe, that is why we are re-looking at the way of our functioning and some action may follow," party sources added.
There has been a buzz doing the rounds that many young voices including the IAS officer, Shah Faesal and Shehla Rashid Shora may soon join Omar Abdullah led the National Conference.
However, sources said that currently, PDP is only focused on restructuring its basic membership and that there may be an induction of new faces as well into the party.
