Minutes after taking over as the Hurriyat chief today, Moulvi Abbas Ansari gave a clean chit to People’s Conference (PC), saying that hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani had ‘‘misunderstood the situation’’ by calling for its expulsion from the conglomerate.This once again reflects shifting of the power balance in the Hurriyat. Geelani’s Jamat-e-Islami abstained from today’s voting where Ansari, a Shia clergyman considered pro-Pakistan, was elected as Hurriyat chief.The hurried poll came as a surprise as the separatist conglomerate is busy trying to tide over the crisis created by the spat between Geelani and PC chairman Sajjad Lone. The two have locked horns over the PC’s ‘‘proxy’’ participation in the last Assembly polls, with Geelani calling upon the Hurriyat to expel the party.Ansari, who heads separatist outfit Ittehadul Muslimeem, said he feels the PC did not contest elections as it ‘‘expelled its members who had joined the poll fray’’. He said: ‘‘We have no reason not to believe the PC that it was not a part of elections. It has, in fact, given a written explanation about the whole issue.’’Claiming Geelani had misunderstood the situation as he was imprisoned at the time of the Assembly elections, Ansari told The Indian Express: ‘‘Geelani sahab is nursing some misunderstanding which we will clear soon. When we were in the Muslim United Front, he fought with me too but then we would shun differences to achieve our common goal. The Hurriyat will be united soon. My top priority is to make it a strong and potent force.’’Ansari was elected unanimously as the forum’s fourth chief today. Five executive members, Awami Action Committee chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Abdul Gani Bhat of the Muslim Conference, Ghulam Rasool Eidi (for JKLF supremo Yasin Malik), Bashir Ahmad Tota of the Peoples’ League and the PC’s Bilal Gani Lone voted for Ansari.Sixty-one-year-old Ansari took over from Prof Bhat, who tendered his resignation last week.
