Three senior PDP leaders, unhappy with Mehbooba Mufti's comments on Tricolour, resign from party

Srinagar: Three PDP leaders from the Jammu region resigned from the party following a statement by its president Mehbooba Mufti regarding the national flag, PDP sources said here on Monday. Senior leaders TS Bajwa, Hassan Ali Waffa and Bed Mahajan have resigned from the PDP, they said. They were unhappy with Mehbooba’s statement about not holding the Tricolour till Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, including its separate state flag, is restored, the sources said. BJP leaders have hit out at Mehbooba for her remarks, saying seditious statements will not be tolerated. Mehbooba on Friday had said she was not interested in contesting elections or holding the Tricolour till the constitutional changes enforced on 5 August, 2019, were rolled back. The PDP leader and former chief minister had also said that she would hold the Tricolour only when the separate flag of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was restored. The Centre on 5 August last year had abrogated the erstwhile state’s special status and bifurcated it into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.