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A day after it extended support to former minister and Independent candidate Taj Mohiuddin from the Uri seat, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Saturday decided to field its own candidate from the constituency. The PDP’s decision to withdraw support to Mohiuddin came after Apni Party leader Altaf Bukhari also announced that it would back the Uri candidate.
“In view of Apni Party extending support to Taj Mohiuddin in Uri constituency, the PDP has decided to withdraw its support to him and put up the party’s own candidate,” the PDP said in an official release on Monday.
On Sunday, the PDP first said it would support Mohiuddin from Uri. Talking to the media at the Independent candidate’s residence, PDP leader and Barmualla candidate Rafiq Rather said he had come there “on the directions of the party leader Mehbooba Mufti” and would campaign for Mohiuddin.
However, on Monday, Apni Party chief Altaf Bukhari also extended his support to Mohiuddin in Uri, forcing the PDP to reconsider its decision.
In a joint press conference with Mohiuddin, Bukhari said his party “will work with the Independent candidates whenever it is necessary for the public’s benefit”. In response, Mohiuddin thanked Bukhari and his party for the support.
Bukhari and Mufti are fierce rivals. Bukhari was a minister in the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP coalition government that was formed in 2014 but left the party along with top leaders to form the Apni Party in 2020.
While Mufti has extended a hand of friendship even to its arch rival National Conference (NC) after the abrogation of Article 370, the party has ruled out any relationship with Bukhari.
The Apni Party has also pulled no punches in attacking Mufti and the PDP.
A prominent Gujjar leader, Mohiuddin is contesting the elections as an Independent candidate and is up against the NC’s Sajad Shafi, a pahari leader.
Sajad is the son of NC stalwart and former minister Mohammad Shafi Uri, who faced off against Mohiuddin in the past from Uri. Shafi had won the Uri Assembly segment for five terms consecutively from 1972 to 1996.
While he won the 1972 elections as an Independent, he contested the next four on an NC ticket.
However, in 2002, Mohiuddin, who was then with the Congress, dislodged Shafi from his political bastion and retained Uri in the 2008 elections as well. In 2014, Shafi again defeated Mohiuddin from Uri.
A senior Congress leader, who was a minister first during the PDP-Congress and then national Conference-Congress government, Mohiuddin left the Congress in August 2022 to join the Ghulam Nabi Azad-led Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP).
However, last month, he resigned from DPAP, raising questions about his return to the Congress. But that did not happen.
Speaking to reporters at the joint press conference on Monday, Mohiuddin said he “has not contacted” the Congress leadership since he resigned from the DPAP.
