The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faced embarrassment today when advocate Muzaffar Nabi Lone son of the party's general secretary Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura joined the newly floated Democratic Azad Party (DAP) of Ghulam Nabi Azad.
According to reports, advocate Muzaffar joined the party in Srinagar after holding deliberations with DAP chief and former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Advocate Muzaffar told the media that the deliberations were already going on and he met Ghulam Nabi Azad at Srinagar and formally joined the party.
"I am associated with politics for a long. I don't have any rift with PDP or my family, but ideological differences compelled me to join DAP as I believe that only Azad Sahib can fill the present political vacuum in Jammu and Kashmiri," he added.
Ghulam Nabi Hanjura, who was also a minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government, is currently the third senior-most leader in the party after Mehbooba Mufti and Abdul Rehman Veeri.
The decision of Hanjura's son to join DAP is an embarrassment for the party because PDP leadership is repeatedly attacking Ghulam Nabi Azad for his stand on the restoration of Article 370.
Hanjura too had earlier resigned as general secretary of PDP but later withdrew his resignation
On February 9, Ghulam Nabi Hanjura had resigned from his post of general secretary of the party but later withdrew his resignation.
Hanjura, who represented the Chrar-e-Sharief assembly seat in the erstwhile state government and was also a minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government.
Hanjura had also resigned as a member of the political affairs committee that the PDP had constituted recently during the revamp of party posts. Hanjura had submitted his resignation to party president Mehbooba Mufti.
However, Hanjura on February 16 rejoined as the party's general secretary and said that all the issues, which led to the resentment were sorted.
Hanjura said that the resignation tendered by him from the party posts was not accepted by the president, Mehbooba Mufti. He said that some issues were there within the family, which have been resolved, adding that he has resumed his duties as the party's general secretary.
For the last three years, there has been an exodus of senior PDP leaders.
Most of the senior PDP leaders, especially former ministers and MLAs, have resigned from the party and joined either the Apni Party led by former minister Altaf Bukhari or the People's Conference led by Sajjad Lone.
Hanjura is considered the face of the party in central Kashmir's Budgam district.
