Former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti was on Monday unanimously re-elected president of PDP for a period of three years.
Her name was proposed by senior leader GNL Hanjura and seconded by Khurshid Alam. Senior PDP leader and former minister AR Veeri was the chairman of party election board.
Party’s electoral college in Jammu earlier unanimously elected Mehbooba as president of the party. Surinder Chaudhary was the returning officer for the election in Jammu.
The PDP was formed in 1998 by Mehbooba’s father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as a regional alternative to the National Conference.
The party grew in strength during the last two decades with many political stalwarts and retired bureaucrats joining it.
However, the party suffered badly and was on the verge of split after the PDP-BJP coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir fell in June 2018.
Addressing party leaders in Srinagar after being elected PDP chief, assured the party cadre that she would take PDP’s agenda of “peace with dignity” forward no matter how hard the road to realising this goal may be.
“PDP will work tirelessly to fulfill our shared vision of development, inclusiveness and reconciliation in J&K and never waiver from speaking up for the rights of people of Jammu and Kashmir,” she said. Mehbooba impressed upon the party cadre to rededicate themselves towards the party’s agenda and the people. She asked them to assume the role of ambassadors of peace and change.
“The road to peace in J&K paves through the mechanisms of dialogue and reconciliation only as envisioned by our late founder. The very ethos of PDP is about advocating and catalysing peace, reconciliation, inclusiveness and development,” Mehbooba said.