Mehbooba Mufti Set To Become First Women Chief Minister Of J&K

07 January, Srinagar

Ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti is set to be the first woman Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

She will succeed her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who passed away Thursday in New Delhi. Party MLAs unanimously elected her as their leader.

A party delegation met the Governor at Raj Bhavan in Srinagar and handed over the letter in this regard, a senior PDP leader said. Earlier, BJP, which is the coalition partner in the state government, left it to PDP to choose its nominee for the post of Chief Minister.

Senior PDP leaders Muzaffar Hussain Beigh and Altaf Bukhari, meanwhile, submitted a letter to Governor N.N. Vohra nominating Mehbooba Mufti as the leader of their legislature party — which would entitle her to assume charge as the new chief minister of the BJP-PDP coalition government.

The letter urged the governor to administer the oath of office to Mehbooba Mufti after Sayeed’s last rites. If and when that happens, she will have to prove her majority on the floor of the 87-member assembly.

But the governor returned to Jammu on Thursday evening, indicating that the oath-taking ceremony of Mehbooba Mufti as chief minister was likely to be delayed.

The swearing in can take place on Friday, said a senior PDP leader, adding that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), its alliance partner in the state government, backed Mehbooba Mufti’s elevation as chief minister.

Mehbooba Mufti, an MP, will have to get elected to the state assembly or be nominated to the legislative council (upper house) within six months if she becomes the chief minister.