Mehbooba Mufti faces friendly fire, PDP's Muzaffar Hussain Baig says J&K CM should go

In an interview to CNN-News18, senior PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig asked for Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s resignation, citing that she couldn’t control the volatile situation in the state. Ever since Mufti came to power, Baig has had mixed views on the same. In an interview to The Times of India earlier this year, Baig claimed that Mufti “will do even better than her father”, while calling himself “an insider critic”, and not a dissenter. “Mehbooba deserves her father’s shoes, she has worked for it,” the report quoted him as saying. [caption id=“attachment_2505330” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Muzaffar Hussain Baig. News18[/caption] However, things do not appear smooth for Mehbooba now and whatever little faith Baig has on the Chief Minister is fast eroding. In his interview to CNN-News18, the senior PDP leader expressed disappointment with the functioning of the alliance between his party and the BJP in the state. Given the unrest in Kashmir, in an interview to The Economic Times in August 2016, Baig had mentioned that Mehbooba would not “crack under pressure” but at the same time said that the onus was on the Modi government at the Centre to help Mehbooba deliver “on the agreed Agenda of Governance of the coalition government”. In a later report in The Economic Times, Baig hinted at PDP’s withdrawal from the ruling coalition in the state, unless BJP fulfilled the signed terms of the alliance. Baig, at the all-party meeting in Srinagar, said that he reminded Prime Minister Narendra Modi of his five-point formula that would help in the restoration of peace in the state and a solution to the ongoing Kashmir problem,  reported Kashmir Life. The same report quoted Baig telling Mufti that she has lost credibility due to “wrong policies” of the state and central government. What has alarmed Baig probably is the new found aggression in Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. Always accused of being soft on the hardliners, Mehbooba displayed incredible aggression when Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited the Valley last month. In no uncertain terms, the Chief Minister directly blamed the Hurriyat leaders for fuelling turmoil in Kashmir that claimed over 70 lives following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July. Baig possibly fears that a tough stance against the Hurriyats will have “PDP being discredited in the Valley”, according to a NDTV report.