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| Lateral entry 'stalwarts' irk PDP oldies | | | ET SPECIAL
Jammu|Sep 14
As Peoples Democratic Party boasts to have grown up as a mature political organization; a silent campaign of dissent is on against the blue eyed boys who are calling shots against the senior leaders and founder members for their proximity with the party leadership.
One such eye sore of the old guard is one Peerzada Mansoor Hussain. When asked about the political stature of Peerzada Mansoor, one of his beta noire described, "he is an unknown political face with most popular name.
The senior leader said that the people like Peerzada Mansoor are a phenomenon, they come like a wind, cling at the top and just rub away the senior leaders and particularly those people who founded the party with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed at a time when even the PDP's name was an anathema in the political circles.
Peerzada Mansoor who used to be an aide in the Chief Minister's office during the regime of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed joined the active party ranks after the change of guard in November 2005. Immediately after he new organizational post was carved to make his as political "secretary to the party president". Over a period of time he has emerged as the third most important person in the organizational hierarchy. Even any press release issued by the party follows the precedence …."Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Mehbooba Mufti and Peerzada Mansoor addressed the meeting….". This trend is not going well with the grassroots party workers.
When Mufti Mohammad Sayeed deserted the Congress to form Peoples Democratic Party in 1999, there were very few people to jump into his unsafe ship. However, those risked their political career to join Mufti now stand relegated into oblivion. Some of them have since left the party after suffering disappointments while others still brood in the isolation with a hope that their loyalties might bring recognition some day.
The founder members of the party had to be pushed to the corner, as many big wigs made their way to the Peoples Democratic Party after it returned to power in 2002. The new entrants including some former Ministers, senior leaders of National Conference and other parties and some drawn from the media occupied prominent space in the party thus leaving the oldies to play a second fiddle.
Muzaffar Hussain Baig, once a spirit of the Peoples Democratic Party, is one of its founder members. As he was allowed to see a mute spectator, a new entrant grew in the party who was strongly opposed by Baig. A former Radio professional Basharat Bukhari was handpicked by Mehbooba Mufti and immediately after his entry into the party fold in 2003 was made the president of youth wing of the party. This move was strongly opposed by Baig but still the new entrant had the last laugh.
In 2004, when the party deliberated upon various names for contest the Lok Sabha elections from North Kashmir seat of Anantnag-Barmulla, the name of Basharat Bukhari was thrown up for discussion. This was strongly opposed by Baig but as he kept on watching, Bukhari was made the Member of the Legislative Council. Same was the case with Nizam-ud-Din Bhat, a journalist, who came from nowhere, got to contest the high profile Lok Sabha election and later found a ticket to become the MLC.
"Most of the people given top organizational positions in the party or nominated the Legislative Council are those who good clothes, move around in swanky cars or have good presence in the media but no mass fallowing", said a sulking PDP leader. He pointed out that 90 per cent of the MLCs nominated by PDP or those manning the top organizational positions can not fetch more than 500 votes for the party.
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