NEW DELHI: BJP today made it clear it will go with the PDP’s choice for the post of Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, clearing the decks for Mehbooba Mufti to take over the reins of the state following her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s death.
“It is for PDP to decide who will be their leader,” BJP vice president and its Jammu and Kashmir in-charge Avinash Rai Khanna said when asked about his party’s stand on Mehbooba succeeding her father, who died earlier in the day at New Delhi’s AIIMS.
“Our alliance is with PDP,” Rai added, indicating it was the coalition’s senior ally’s prerogative to choose the leader for the top job.
56-yeard-old Mehbooba, who is the PDP’s president, has had her share of detractors in the saffron ranks for several reasons, including her passionate espousal of her party’s ‘self-rule’ concept, which used to be dubbed “as soft separatism” by many in the BJP.(AGENCIES)
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