Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter, Iltija Mufti, was among the eight party leaders nominated as constituencies in-charge in eight Assembly constituencies of south Kashmir.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter, Iltija Mufti, was among the eight party leaders nominated on Monday as constituencies in-charge in eight Assembly constituencies of south Kashmir.
The nomination has paved the way for Ms. Iltija to join the electoral fray for the first time as a candidate. She emerged as the face of the party in 2019 when her mother was detained by the authorities after the abrogation of Article 370. She was seen campaigning for her release and later took over as media adviser for the former J&K chief minister. She also campaigned for her mother during the Lok Sabha election in the Anantnag-Rajouri seat this year.
“It’s an honour. The people of Jammu and Kashmir have been facing a grind due to policies implemented by the Centre. Whenever the party assigned me a job, I tried my best. If the party wants me to step up, I will,” Ms. Mufti said.
Waheed Rehman Parra, a youth president of the PDP who was detained under the UAPA for 19 months in 2020, has been named as the in-charge of Pulwama. Mr. Parra was fielded as a candidate for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat earlier this year. Earlier this year, he was also nominated as the Yale Peace Fellow at Yale University’s International Leadership Center but could not join due to denial of travel documents. He also won the District Development Council (DDC) elections in 2020 from Pulwama but was not allowed to take oath due to the ongoing case.
The other leaders named in the PDP list include Abdul Rehman Veeri for the Anantnag East seat, Sartaj Madani for the Devsar seat, Dr. Mehboob Beg for the Anantnag seat, G.N. Lone Hanjura for Charar-e-Shareef, Ghulam Mohiuddin Wani for Wachi, and Rafiq Ahmad Naik for the Tral seat.
